Sunday, April 24, 2005

Trenchcoats Make Everything Cooler

Trenchcoats are cool.

This is an indisputed fact.

Comic books knew this, and almost as soon as there WERE comic book heroes, there were folks in trenchcoats.

Slam Bradley was known to sport one from time to time while doing his detective work, as did fellow detective Speed Saunders.

The most popular of the early trenchcoat wearers, though, was probably Dr. Occult.

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Dr. Occult was basically Slam Bradley and Speed Saunders, only more occult-y. His two-fisted adventures proved to last a little bit longer than the other two characters.

The most popular of the the trenchcoat heroes, though, was the Phantom Stranger. He was the first trenchcoat fella to get his OWN series!

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He was also the first trenchcoat hero to join the Justice League!

Trenchcoat heroes had a lull period in the 60s, 70s and most of the 80s, with only Phantom Stranger really keeping the coolness alive.

Then John Constantine appeared in the pages of Swamp Thing, and people remember just how cool trenchcoats were!

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Within a few years of the launch of John Constantine's trenchcoat's comic, Marvel let loose some two-fisted action of their own!

First, they introduced Gambit into the pages of Uncanny X-Men.

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Gambit's trenchcoat was so cool that even when the X-Men all started wearing matching costumes, Gambit managed to keep his coat.

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Next, the original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, returned...and he was packing trenchcoat!

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Even former sidekicks got into the action, as Captain America's former sidekick, Nomad, got his own comic (conveniently timed with when he began wearing a trenchcoat. Coincidence? I think not).

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Soon, even established heroes were getting jealous. THEY wanted to be cool as well!

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The recent success of the Sin City movie should come as no surprise to anyone.

After all, Frank Miller knew enough to make all three of his protagonists wear trenchcoats!

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Finally, DC eventually realized just what was selling, and in 1999, they put together possibly THE coolest comic ever...

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Am I missing any great trenchcoated heroes?

4 Comments:

Blogger Brian Cronin said...

Not for nothing, but it DOES make him look like they stuck a man's head on a female gymnast's body...hehe.

4/24/2005 6:56 PM  
Blogger Scipio said...

Trenchcoats ARE cool.

And so is your pleasant blog, actually written by people who know how to ENJOY comics!

Keep up the good work.

4/24/2005 10:42 PM  
Blogger Michael said...

This blog has given me an idea so good, I'm not even going to tell you what it is.

4/25/2005 6:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, and now we've got Hush. Not a hero, but still...suck.

8/26/2005 2:43 PM  

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