This weekend’s escapist superhero blog post will examine the infamous independent creation Grips. His gritty, ultraviolent escapades ranged from fighting street crime to stopping Saddam Hussein from using nukes on America.
GRIPS
First Appearance: Grips #1 (September 1986). His final appearance came in March 1992.
Secret Identity: Martin Kane, artist for Fat Ninja Comics
NOTE: Created and written by Kris Silver and with his earliest adventures illustrated by Tim Vigil of Faust fame, Grips was a cross between Wolverine and the Punisher. However, as a character from an independent company whose internal pages were in black & white his violence and other mature themes went WAY beyond anything featuring either of those two Marvel Comics creations.
Think of the over the top, seldom realistic violence of films like Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, or maybe Sonny Chiba’s 1970s Street Fighter flicks.
As I indicated in the title of this blog post, I consider the Grips tales to be what low-budget, disreputable Grindhouse movies of the past were to glossy, professional films from major studios. The writing and artwork in Grips seldom approached the standards of the Big Two publishers, but the visceral violence, profanity and often taboo subject matter more than made up for the overall shoddiness of the finished product.
One thing is certain – you’ll consider Wolverine and the Punisher to be as bland and corporate as Richie Rich comics after you’ve walked the Sacramento streets of Kris Silver’s deranged vigilante called Grips.
Powers and Weapons: Continue reading
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #183 (October 1980) 
The remaining evil forces on Apokolips – led by Granny Goodness (a Kirby creation, needless to say) – have raided New Genesis and abducted most of the inhabitants, then taken them as slaves back to their own planet. They did it with the help of three Earth-Two villains – Icicle, Shade and the Fiddler – so the New Gods use the annual get-together of the Justice Society and Justice League to recruit the two teams to help them recover their kidnapped population. 
THE HERETIC 
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #123 (October 1975) 
YELLOWJACKET 
Powers: Yellowjacket was a probable mutant with the power of mentally controlling bees. He used his armies of those insects to sting, distract or harass opponents in battle. In addition, this hero was in peak physical condition and excelled at unarmed combat. 
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #82 (August 1970) 
NELVANA OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
BLACK WING 
Powers: Black Wing was in peak physical condition and excelled at unarmed combat. He was also a superb pilot and had the advantage of flying the high-tech craft he had stolen from the Nazis. 
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #21 (August 1963) 
The company’s method of adapting more “up to date” versions of their Golden Age heroes without losing the copyrights on those figures was to state that the original versions of all their old heroes came from an alternate Earth, designated Earth-Two. The Earth with the newer heroes was called Earth-One, since they were the newer, CURRENT versions. 
SKULL THE SLAYER Vol 1 #1 (August 1975) 
It is not truly the Earth of millions of years ago, because it is anachronistically populated by dinosaurs and primates that were never alive during the same time periods. The only survivors of the plane crash are Scully, a young Native American man named Jeff Turner, an African American physician named Raymond Corey, and Corey’s young research assistant Ann Reynolds. 
BLONDE PHANTOM
ALL SELECT COMICS Vol 1 #11 (September 1946) 
