They’re not just punchers of evil and crusaders in capes… They’re the best of both worlds!  Welcome to Ten Things: Ten Supers Who Are Two-Things-In-One!

Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian and new Shimmer: It’s a floor wax AND a dessert topping, Presents:

TEN THINGS: TEN SUPERS WHO ARE TWO-THINGS-IN-ONE!

10) ZENKAISER

The leader and only human member of Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, Kaito Gohikida has an absolutely incredible design that combines the aesthetics of the first two Super Sentai leaders, Akaranger and Big One.  Kaito is courageous and brave, like Akaranger, as well as Big One’s leadership abilities and cleverness.  His status as White Ranger leader is unusual, but another reference to Big One, making him a clear mash-up of both heroes.

9) MISTER MIGHT

On Earth-12, Barb-Ell was rocketed from the dead planet Neon to Earth by his father, Dumb-Ell, who believed that Neon was about to explode.  (It didn’t, BTW.  His name was quite fitting.)  Once on our world, Barb-Ell took on a human identity and created his superhuman nom de guerre of Mister Might.  A member of the Golden Age super-team known as the Justice Brigade, he eventually married fellow hero The Mermaid ,and fathered a son who inherited their powers.  ‘Course, that meant tremendous physical power in a clumsy form that required him to stay moist, leading to his son becoming the hero known as Awkwardman.

His uniform is literally half-Superman, half-Flash.

8) ULTIMATUM

The Secret Wars crossover combined the prime Marvel reality with Ultimate Marvel, but in so doing, caused a few problems.  The biggest (pun fully intended) came in the form of Earth-616 Miles Morales, a minor capo in the Rigoletto crime family.  When Ultimate Miles traveled to Earth-616, this Miles traveled to the Ultimate universe and stole weaponry that gave him the powers of the Ultimates, including Giant-Man’s growing powers and gauntlets based on Ultimate Iron Man’s.  They named him Ultimatum because The Iron Giant was already taken, I presume.

7) STARMAN 1951

When Jack Knight took over his father’s mantle of Starman, he discovered a number of different heroes had played the part in between.  One of them was a mysterious Starman who only operated in the year 1951, then disappeared.  Thanks to #TimeTravelShenanigans, Jack ended up traveling back to discover the truth: Starman of 1951 was actually more than one person, but the first one was Dr. Charles McNider, aka Doctor Mid-Nite.

The story was based on Detective Comics #247, in which a phobia of bats causes Bruce Wayne to temporarily change his nom de guerre and M.O., though that story was released in 1957 rather than 1951.

6) CHERUB

When the X-Men declared Krakoa its own sovereign nation and upended everything, a number of changes took place in the Marvel Universe.  Among those changes came the idolization of the mutants as cool, sexy celebrities, leading Gabriel Braithwaite and his friends to emulate them, posing as mutants and fighting crime as the Children of the Atom.  Able to fly and heavily armored, Cherub resembles a combination of Archangel and Colossus, making him the coolest looking member of his team.

Personally, I’d have named him Archolossus.  Or Colangelus?

5) DOCTOR DOOM

On Earth-11209, an accident transposed the minds of Victor Von Doom and Tony Stark, leaving Doom richer than Solomon and Stark excommunicated for “his” hubris.  Deported back to Latveria, Tony is unable to access Doom’s resources, but still has his creative genius.  Tony manages to build his own powered armor under terrible conditions once more, but uses “traditional Latverian designs”, thus making it look just like the prime Doom’s armor.  Their clash ends with Stark/Doom in prison, with Doom/Stark vowing to make his name synonymous with honor and justice.

Some What If? stories are full of coincidences that make you question them.  This one is absolutely AWASH in such problematic aspects.

4) THE HOMELANDER

The leader of The Seven, a corrupt multimedia enterprise masquerading as a super-team, The Homelander (sometimes called John, but never given a full name) combines Superman’s majestic flight and overwhelming power with Captain America’s jingoistic symbolism and focus on doing the right thing.  Sadly, though he has Cap’s flair for inspiring people, it’s all the wrong people, and he uses his Superman-style powers for self-enrichment and hedonistic revelry.  An early take on the “Evil Superman” archetype, Homelander’s evil comes across as actually shocking, but the diminishing returns of overuse have made him just another jerk in a sea of caped jerks.

3) THE THRASHER

One of many creative endeavors by Stan Lee after his exit from Marvel Comics, The Guardian Project envisioned all 30 of the National Hockey League’s team mascots into superheroes.  It was a pretty crashing failure, in part due to limited crossover potential between the audiences, but also because some of the heroes were a little underwhelming.  Interestingly, The Thrasher (named for Atlanta’s resident team) has the gimmick of “a living fighter jet,” which didn’t make a lot of sense until the Thrashers relocated and rebranded as the Winnipeg Jets in 2011.  The Thrasher likewise rebranded before the whole project collapsed at the end of that year.  Still, that armor is pretty cool.

2) CANNONFLASH

After the Marvel Vs. DC/DC Vs. Marvel limited series was complete, the hero Access (owned by Marvel and DC in tandem) visited the heroes of Earth 616 and New Earth a couple more times, one of which involved a meeting of the Justice League and the X-Men.  In order to get the two teams to stop fighting (it was 1997, after all) he amalgamated them into one team, including combining young X-Man Sam Guthrie and Wally West into one.  It makes sense textually, as both had graduated from the junior teams to be the new guy on their respective squads, as well as combining super-speed with invulnerability, always a winning combo.

1) YELLOW LANTERN BRUCE WAYNE

One of the biggest “D&D combat twink” moments in recent memory (indeed, perhaps of all time) comes during one of the various wars of light, wherein the Sinestro Corps went recruiting and identified Gotham City’s guardian as capable of instilling great fear.  For reasons that make sense in-character and out, he rejected the ring, but you can’t swing a cat on the Internet without somebody opining that he should have kept it.  Still, for one brief shining moment, we had Yellow Lantern Batman and it was… just a really terrible idea from top to bottom.

Once again, this week’s topic, Ten Supers Who Are Two-Things-In-One is all me, but feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra to suggest your own! There’s always more Ten Things madness on my Twitter or check out the full Twitter archive here!  As with any set of like items, these aren’t meant to be hard and fast or absolutely complete as, let’s be honest, this sort of thing is going to keep happening in modern mash-up culture.  Either way, the comments section is below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!

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