In The Red: The Winner (and the Answers)!

Late last week, I challenged you to identify 32 red-themed comic book characters, each with the word "red", "crimson", or "scarlet" somewhere in their names.  Although nobody got all of them right, Thomas Aderholt managed to nail a staggering 31 out of 32 names (missing only character #5). Congratulations, Thomas...your copy of the Watchmen trade paperback is on its way!

Thanks to everyone who participated...I hope you had fun!  Stay tuned for more comics-themed challenges in the months to come.

So...who were all of those In The Red
characters, anyway? Here's the official answer key:

1. The Red Hood: An old Batman villain who later became...The Joker!

2. Crimson Fox: A DC Comics French superhero and member of the Global Guardians.

3. Red Tornado II: Android member of the Justice League.

4. Red Wolf: A Native American superhero appearing in Marvel Comics.

5. Red Dragon: Golden Age superhero published by Street and Smith from 1943-44.  Taken from quite possibly the most gruesome cover I've ever seen pitched specifically to "Boys and Girls".  Yick.

6. Mr. Scarlet: Golden Age superhero published by Fawcett Comics, mentor of Pinky the Whiz Kid.

7. Crimson Dynamo: Iron-Man's evil Soviet counterpart.

8. Red Arrow: Formerly Speedy, sidekick of Green Arrow.

9. Red Ryder: The cowboy hero that will always be associated with his "Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle" a young Ralphie Parker had to have in the movie A Christmas Story.

10. The Scarlet Centurion: Time-traveling Marvel villain and son of Kang the Conqueror.

11. The Crimson Avengers: A very early Golden Age hero, seen here wearing his original Shadow-like costume.

12. Red Guardian: The Soviet answer to Captain America and one-time adversary of the Avengers.

13. Red Power Ranger: Chop-socky teen hero from the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers TV series.

14. The Red Ghost: In addition to turning invisible and intangible, this classic Commie villain was also the master of three super-powered apes.  Yes, really.

15. Red Rube: A Golden Age hero published by MLJ Comics (precursor of Archie comics). By shouting "Hey, Rube!", young Reuben Reuben transformed into an adult superhero with a vast array of powers and abilities (sounding suspiciously close to Fawcett's Captain Marvel).

16. Red Robin: Superhero identity of former Batman sidekick Dick Grayson in Kingdom Come, an alternate future set in the DC universe. Recently, another former Robin named Jason Todd has adopted the Red Robin identity.

17. Omega Red: X-Men villain and Soviet counterpart of Wolverine.

18. The Red Bee: Golden Age superhero published by Quality Comics who fought crime with a "stinger gun" and a swarm of trained bees, one of whom he affectionately named "Michael". You can't make this stuff up, can you?

19. Red King: Justice League villain.

20. The Scarlet Witch: Mutant sorceress and long-time member of the Avengers (before she flipped out and scrambled all of reality).

21. Red Raven: Flying Golden Age superhero published by Timely (Marvel) Comics.

22. Crimson Commando: X-Men foe and former member of the Freedom Force, the first government-sponsored mutant team.

23. Red Mask: Western hero published by Magazine Enterprises during the mid-50's cowboy craze.

24. Red Panzer: Agent of the Third Reich and enemy of Wonder Woman.

25. Red Shift: One of the many heralds of space-god Galactus.

26. Red Sonja: The "She-Devil With a Sword" introduced in Marvel's Conan series.

27. Red Star: A DC Comics Russian superhero, originally known as "Starfire".

28. Red Tornado I: One of the first superhero parodies, Maxine "Ma" Hunkel posed as a male superhero by sporting a homemade costume and fighting crime in her New York neighborhood. She's most famous for her blundering cameo appearance in All-Star Comics #3 (1940), the official debut of the Justice Society of America (thereby making Ma an honorary member of the very first superhero team).

29. Scarlet Spider: Heroic identity of Ben Parker, the clone of Peter Parker (from the infamous Spider-Clone saga)

30. Red Skull: Arch-enemy of Captain America.

31. Scarlet Scarab: Egyptian supervillain who fought the Invaders during WWII.

32. Rocket Red: An individual member of the Rocket Red Brigade, an armored force that was created to defend the former Soviet Union.

There...you now know more red-themed characters than you ever cared to know about!

Oh, before I forget, Thomas not only got 31 of the 32 characters, but he also sent along five additional red-themed characters I had overlooked.  Here they are:

Red Torpedo
Agent Crimson
Red Blazer
Red Demon
Red Rocket
Red, White & Blue

Now that's what I call "going above and beyond the call of duty"!

P.S.: On a completely unrelated note, be sure to check out Brian Disco Snell's much-deserved skewering of DC's horrendous Countdown series. Several bloggers have slammed this wretched, meandering mess...but nobody hits the bulls-eye quite like Snell. I thankfully bailed after the first three or four issues, but for those of you who put all that time and money into following the year-long weekly series, let Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep (one of my daily "must visit" blogs) soothe your pain!

Comments

[Z Ryan]

Just looking at all those characters I was lost. I could get a half-dozen at most...

[Mark Engblom]

Well, but look at it this way: Now you know at least 38 red-themed comic book characters to thrill and amaze your friends with.

[Kyle]

Aargh, missed it by one! A couple of others you didn't use: The Crimson Comet, Marvel's Crimson Crusader, and (I couldn't believe it) Red Ronin!

Great challenge, Mark. That was fun!

[Z Ryan]

Haha, yeah, I'm sure this will come in handy when hitting on women.

[Pat Curley]

A bunch of us in a chatroom collaborated last night and were able to get 29 right. We missed Red Rube, Red Panzer (I guessed Scarlet Schutzstaffel), and thought that Red Dragon must be the Lev Gleason Daredevil, who was revived in the AC Comics FemForce series as Red Devil.

[Mark Engblom]

"Aargh, missed it by one! A couple of others you didn't use: The Crimson Comet, Marvel's Crimson Crusader, and (I couldn't believe it) Red Ronin!

Great challenge, Mark. That was fun!"

Aarrgh! Crimson Comet was certainly a guy I was aware of, but didn't include...and I was marginally aware of Red Ronin. Thing is, I'm sure there are literally dozens more that eluded me....so maybe there'll be an "In the Red II" someday, huh?

Anyway, glad you had fun. I enjoy putting them together (being the pathetic list-maker I am), so it was a win-win situation for everyone).

[Mark Engblom]

"A bunch of us in a chatroom collaborated last night and were able to get 29 right."

That's fantastic! That's exactly the kind of fun I want to promote with contests like this one.

So, what would've happened if your collaborative entry had won? Would you have divided the Watchmen paperback into chapters for each contributor? ;)

For what it's worth, the winner also thought Red Dragon might be the Lev Gleason Daredevil. The divided red and dark sides of his face certainly give that impression at first glance.

[Pat Curley]

If we'd submitted a collaborative entry, I would have asked who wanted a copy of Watchmen from the other people who worked on the puzzle. I have a copy of the trade paperback from the 1980s. :)

It was a lot of fun, especially when we got down to the last couple. We noticed that there was some sort of "W" behind Red Rube, so we were wondering if he was the Red Whiz, or the Red Whirlwind, or something like that. I would not have guessed him as a GA character; the art looked more like the 1960s. Of course, maybe the bare chest should have ruled against; I doubt the CCA would have allowed it.

[Wes C]

I didn't know Disco had a blog of his own.

Now I do and I'll be checking it out!

BTW: I got 24 of them, thanks to the Who's Who and Marvel Universe's being burned into my brain.

[Mark Engblom]

Yeah, definitely add Snell's blog to your daily reading. You'll never be disappointed.

As for Who's Who and Marvel Universe, you can imagine how much a guy like me enjoyed both of those series (though I would give the edge to Marvel for their staggering amount of detail and the cool technical drawings).

[John Nowak]

I've got to admit I've always been wondered why a woman would dress like a brown cobra and call herself "The Crimson Fox."

It's like copyright laws were involved somehow.

[MMFK]

Where's Erik the Red?

[felgekarp]

Red Rube sounds like the greatest super hero ever, I now have to know everything about him. Oh and I've just picked up a full set of Countdown up off E-bay.

[Kyle]

With a name like "Red Rube," you'd expect him to be a ex-carny or something. As I recall, he was actually a kid reporter named Reuben Reuben (catchy, id'n it?) that would magically transform into a bare-chested, super-strong grown-up whenever he shouted the magical carny's catch-phrase, "Hey Rube!"

Er, that's about all I can remember about the guy.

[felgekarp]

If he was a carny and he'd been given those powers by guy that ran the ring toss stall after being the first person to toss a ring over the large diamond that was present at the centre of the stall then we'd be cooking.

[Geoff]

Another red person: Red Dragon, from Grant Morrison's early career hit, Zenith. http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/r/reddrag.htm