The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History

A beautifully produced book filled with vintage material about superheroes who were destined to fail. After reading it I checked out the author's blog, and I must admit - Jon Morris is a pretty funny guy. However, this book is only 90% humor. There's a lot of relevance here as well, and every article on each of the poor unfortunate characters Jon showcases has been meticulously researched. Hence, the end result is a product filled with useful facts that can be read either encyclopedia style by selecting individual entries, or by adopting a more story-centric approach by starting from the Golden Age and working upwards through The Silver Age and into the Modern. Each hero's biography paints a complete picture of his/her history and a short analysis of why he/she may be deemed regrettable. The main character art of each entry is stunning, but the real highlight for me was the short one-page strips accompanying each superheroes' well-written history. The overall look and feel of the book exudes charm and is a true pleasure to read. Most of the weirdest and zaniest creations spotlighted came from The Golden Age, but there are a fair number of entries from other eras too. My favorite Golden Age mishaps featured within are, among others, Stardust the Super Wizard, Speed Centaur, Kangaroo Man, The Puppeteer, Fantomah, Bozo the Robot and Doctor Hormone. Oh, and how could I forget Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, the very first invisible superheroine? The Silver Age is also ripe for the picking, with entries like B'Wana Beast (Love him!) and the classic Legion of Super-Pets. For the Modern Age I need only utter a single name: Thunderbunny! But the list goes on and on, and each page is as entertaining as the next. A worthy read, and a bang-for-your-buck purchase indeed.

I'm only halfway through the book as I'm savoring each entry. This book is so much fun both paying homage to the old characters and at the same time recognizing some of the pure absurdity of these same characters. Author Jon Morris commentary is great. He expresses both humor and his love for comic books in every entry. I have been enjoying this book more then 90% of any current comic book I have been reading. So many moments when I'm laughing out loud at both Jon's commentary and some of the characters. I even forgive that he has put in some of my quirky favorites in the book, not that Congorilla and Ultra the Multi Alien don't deserve their place in the book. Heck I think there is room for a second volume that could include Space Cabbie, Zook and more. If you are a fan of comics this book is worth your money and time and would be a great gift for any comic book fan in your life.

The League of Regrettable Superheroes by long-time comic blogger Jon Morris (Gone and Forgotten) is a guide to dozens of obscure and failed superhero concepts from the 30s to today. Even for a life-long fan like me there were many Golden and Silver Age characters I'd never heard of and some commentary on the characters' creators and backgrounds. For a lot of them I'd love to see them updated and brought back. Things got less interesting for me as they entered the modern age where I had at least some familiarity with most of the characters featured. The entries are short and keep to the point making this a good read for flights or commuting, you can basically pick it up anywhere without losing an overall plot. At times the book betrays its origins in the world of blogging with some snarky comments. And I found some of the reprinted comic pages were hard to see on my Kindly Paperwhite but these were just minor problems. It's a great read for anyone who loves the mad world of comics and superheroes.

Morris's "League of Regrettable Superheroes" is exploration of the flukes of the superhero genre, and this breaks things down into the nice explorations of vices and would-bes of the various comic book ages. Since the book focuses primarily on the super-heros with brief shelf-lives, you don't need to dig down into massive mythologies or character inconsistencies or revisions of character history or alternate universes. Or, not as much as in more standard and long-running superhero fair. Each character has, at least, a two page spread. A cover or panel is given as well as brief bio. Morris is not laugh at loud funny, but he is humorous without being snarky or pedantic. In the spirit of early comic books, there are few cute puns. The current break down is the Golden Age with 44 heroes; The Silver Age with 26 heroes; and The Modern Age with 30 heroes. The Golden Age has similar themes from comics publishers run amok, and the discussion actually gives you a insight into the early history of comics. The collapse of the "Bronze Age" and the "1980s-early 2000s" is probably a thematic mistake: the "Edgy" "adult" (teen vision of adult prurience and violence) and the bronze age attempt at more psychologically realistic and socially conscious heroes are actually quite different in their vices. One of the interesting things discussed in subtext of Morris' book is that not only are some of the more interesting superheroes more or less flops, but that superhero comics often go out of favor. For example, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Morris mentions that superheroes were often in serial movies in theaters, but that superhero comics declined in popularity very quickly thereafter. Conversely, the early 1990s were an unusual prolix and profitable time for comics, but it collapsed out from under the industry and basically only related properties keep the current industry afloat. Indeed, we live in an age where superhero comic properties dominate the movies and popular culture, but superhero comic books are on the wane. This is something Morris does not discuss directly but hints at in his erudition about the medium. The book is beautiful and well-laid out, the heroes range from hilarious to the vices of their age, and Morris shows his power as a subtle writer of pop culture and an academic of comics. In age of Geek and nerd dominance, this a refreshing reminder of its silliness.

Was a present, and the quality of the book itself was good. So am happy.

Never knew how many superheroes never made it to the major superhero circuit until I read this book. Excellent read, book was in new condition and the delivery was fast. Worth buying.

There's supposed to be a fine line between genius and madness, but you have to wonder at the people who created some of these characters. One of the silliest of these is Bozo the Robot, a very distant ancestor of Iron Man. Amongst many others there's the Eye which is a floating eyeball and a mute super hero from Steve Ditko called Killjoy (one of his rare duds). This book is essential reading for any serious comics fan as it makes you realise how much goes into creating a super hero that will become successful and shows how easy it is to create something that is absolutely naff, even with the best intentions.

Really amazing book of you are into superheroes with a twist

Jonathan "Jon" Morris livre avec cet ouvrage un "best of" des trouvailles exhumées et commentées dans son blog "Gone & Forgotten" s'agissant des naufrages artistiques et commerciaux enregistrés dans le monde des comic books de super-héros depuis les origines. Ici, l'accent est placé sur des personnages et séries à l'existence plus ou moins brève, et généralement oubliés, mais son blog peut aussi aborder des n° ou "arcs" particulièrement nuls de personnages plus en vue encore aujourd'hui. La moitié de l'ouvrage se consacre au Golden Age des comic books de super-héros, le quart suivant aborde le Silver Age et le reste aborde les années 1970 à nos jours en un seul tout. Dans chacun des trois chapitres, l'auteur adopte un classement des personnages par ordre alphabétique et consacre généralement deux pages à chaque entrée : une page d'illustration (couverture ou page intérieure de comic book) et une page de notice bibliographique, avec citation des créateurs et présentation des principaux hauts faits du personnage, le tout avec un humour bon enfant. Pour certaines entrées, le nombre de pages qui leur sont consacrées peut doubler, notamment s'il s'agit d'inventions de Fletcher Hanks ! Beaucoup des personnages sont des créations d'auteurs de tout premier plan, mais ils sont saisis à un moment de moindre inspiration que pour leurs créations principales : Jerry Siegel et Joe Shuster (par qui tout est arrivé, avec la création de Superman), Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Dick Giordano, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, Neal Adams... Un certain nombre des personnages évoqués ne sont pas nuls en soi mais ont pâti de n'être que des "also-rans" ou d'un déficit plus ou moins momentané de guidage éditorial. Des personnages comme "Squirrel Girl" ont même obtenu en 2015 une série à eux ! Le recul historique manque probablement pour un regard plus acéré sur les années dites "modernes" commencées en 1970... Le livre se lit agréablement comme une histoire alternative des comic books de super-héros, comme on lirait une histoire de Hollywood à partir de fiches sur les C à Z-movies ! La version française de ce livre a été publiée quelques jours après l'originale anglo-saxonne, sous un titre un peu moins retenu... ' Les Super-Zéros, Râtés, parias, bannis et autres oubliés de l'histoire des comics '.