As much fun as it might have been to pretend to be a hero like Batman or Iron Man, with unlimited resources to aid in your battle against crime, I have to say as a kid I identified a lot more with characters like Ragman. Here was a guy who had almost nothing and operated out of a junk yard, but that didn't stop him from trying to do the right thing. As someone with limited means, it was nice to know that not all heroes were millionaire playboys.
Never caught up with Ragman. Another good one. But, it's amazing how Cap - not included on the Teamup banner - dominates the cover.
ReplyDeleteP.s. Who's the bad guy?
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ReplyDeleteAn "Ultra Robot" of Lucifer,
ReplyDeleteRagman didn't have much but that was strange in his case. He was like a human Spectre. Because he collected evildoers souls in each rag, you could expect him to have other energies or abilities to draw on. He could only tap minds of those in the rags and shorten their sentence for helping him. Not a common approach for such a hero.
ReplyDeleteNice cover.
Well, if this is the supernatural Ragman, it's easy to see why he might be mistaken about the identity of the Ultra-Rob's master. But, if it's the Silver Age Ragman, he might have mistaken the Ultra-Rob for, say, a neo-Nazi version of Iron Cross!
ReplyDeleteHence, the team-up with Cap and Falc.
Who's to say he's not? He could have been jointly built by the Red Skull and Professor Ivo as a Ragman-hunter!
ReplyDeleteAs in, "No Ragman escapes...?"
Ragman's previous appearance with The Junkyard Gang (a team lacking only Basura, from Who Wants to Be a Superhero?) kind of underscores the value of heroes from the low end of the financial spectrum. It's one thing to go out and do what needs to be done when one has a good life and nigh-unlimited resources; it's something else entirely when life takes a crap on one and one still strives to do the right thing.
ReplyDeletedet_Tobor is confusing the pre-Crisis Ragman (which I like) with the post-Crisis version (which I don't). The original Ragman was basically Bruce Wayne without money. There was nothing supernatural about him at all.
ReplyDeleteI greatly regret that ONE of these heroes got good screen appearances while the other (hint: who appeared on Arrow) was a one and done. Arrow needed some low level super heroes - not ONLY talented normals (who were swell.) Black Canary was great. Ragman got some of one season, and then poof - never to be seen again (although I thought I saw Rory in the final Arrow episode at the funeral.)
ReplyDeleteELS: Ragman did come back for the penultimate episode. I'd love to see him show up on Legends of Tomorrow, though, maybe even joining the team for a bit.
ReplyDeleteELS & BG, Ragman was more than a talented normal. He did survive a very real big bomb. His "rags" stopped working afterwards, but they did protect him when no one expected them to.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they contained Dark Matter?
I remember him showing in the occasional Brave and the Bold issue in the early '80s when I was a kid. I could also find him in the dollar bin racks of comic shops with other random issues from the early '70s-'80s. I really loved this "financially" broke Batman who seemed just as athletic. And he had an African-American news reporter girlfriend!! This was low-key one of my favorite characters from the Silver Age, along with Rose & the Thorn. Not surprising, both created (?) and written by Rober Kannigher.
ReplyDelete@my namesake: which is why he was far better than the needlessly supernaturalized one.
ReplyDeleteAnother hero who worked out of a junkyard (at least originally) was "The Great and Powerful Turtle" from the 'Wild Cards' book series.
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