Look out old Safari Jacket Wonder Man is back!

Updated on September 7, 2006 By Ken Begg 7 Comments

I’ve talked before about my love for a handful of second banana Marvel superheroes (Ghost Rider back in the day, Luke Cage*), and included Safari Jacket Wonder Man in the roster. As noted, I really never liked any of his other looks. He was a glowing energy being for a while. Yawn. And he’s also had a simply dreadful parade of ‘superhero’ costumes, all of which featured a retarded looking giant ‘W’ on his chest. As if to make him look especially bad, in the late ’80s and ’90s these horrible costumes were mated by giving Wonder Man a mullet. Yuck.

[*As I noted at the time, one link among these three is that they didn’t have elaborate superhero costumes. Ghost Rider was a motorcycle stunt guy, and wore blue leathers. Luke Cage wore a yellow silk shirt and black slacks along with boots. Wonder Man again wore a red safari jacket over tight black pants and the requisite boots as well. In other words, compared to Spider-Man or Captain America, these guy comparatively wore street clothes.]

But now the classic, golden Wonder Man of Yore is back. Check this out. [If you click on each separate page, they appear in a new window, and can be blown up via the icon in the right right hand corner to a huge size, allowing you to really enjoy the extremely good artwork.]

You can’t miss the cameo by another beloved character either, who once was part of the Marvel Universe.

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  • While I enjoyed seeing the Big Guy in the crowd, I can’t help wondering if they aren’t asking for trouble. I thought Marvel had some problems with Toho over something that only sort of looked like Godzilla.

  • Yeah, I was a little surprised too. It’s clearly Godzilla, so maybe a one-panel cameo is too small to be considered a copywrite violation?

    Nice art, I have to say.

  • I think as long as Marvel doesn’t come out and say, “Hey, this is Godzilla” Toho won’t mind. And as long as it’s just a cameo appearance, and not featured in a book.

  • the rev. d.d.

    Looking at that page makes me want to read the Avengers. And I never have before.

    One question…did the Wasp always have an energy attack? I see her shooting some sort of beam there, and wasn’t aware she could do that. Or is that something new they added, maybe realizing that shrinking and flying around, while helpful, aren’t exactly spectacular powers?

  • Yeah, it’s a biokinetic burst beam that Henry Pym designed for her ages ago. I think it harnesses the energy from when she changes size or something.

    Ares is a new and weird addition, since if they wanted a god they already had Thor and Hercules. However, the stength/power quotient of this line-up is gigantic, with Wonder Man (nearly Thor-strong), Ares (presumably god-powered), Iron Man, Sentry and Ms. Marvel all being very heavy hitters. “Mighty” Avengers certainly is an accurate description.

    For those not following, there’s been a “Civil War” among the superheroes lately, and when the dust settles, the Rebs and the, er, non-Rebs among the Avengers will split into two teams. This is one, Captain America will lead the others.

  • I think they used Ares because he recently had a limited series based around him, and wanted to try to use the supposed popularity of that series to help cement the “Mighty Avengers” popularity. He is the God of War, but while that would likely include all the powers most other gods of the Marvel Universe have (super-strength and a good deal of invulnerability) he may or may not possess the mastery of weapons as well. Not to mention the fact that the God of War would, most likely, be a good strategist.

  • the rev. d.d.

    Yeah, I’d heard about Civil War, and heard good things about it. I figure I might check it out in omnibus form in the future (except for Hellboy and a couple of other titles I tend to wait for the collections).