Anybody can punch evil in an armored suit, or dodge a blow in a spandex onesie. Some supers, though, like to keep things more formal. Welcome to Ten Things: Ten Suit-And-Tie Supers!
Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian and Zatanna Zatara, whose father taught her the symbolic value of a good old-fashioned tuxedo, Presents:

TEN THINGS: TEN SUIT-AND-TIE SUPERS!

10) THE ODD MAN

The sole superhero of River City in the DC Universe, Clay Stoner uses gimmicks, sleight-of-hand, and illusion techniques to disorient and stun his foes. He only had one confirmed solo adventure before settling into the life of a bizarre-looking background character, fighting in the army of heroes during Infinite Crisis, serving as a pall-bearer at the funeral of Booster Gold, and apparently working shifts for Hero Hotline. Created by Steve Ditko during what became known as the DC Implosion, Clay was later revived as a backup strip in the pages of Mother Panic.

This series took the tack that his first appearance circa 1978 actually took place in 1978, with an elderly Clay Mann trying to come to terms with his daughter and his complete lack of impact on the world as The Odd Man, but the story was never resolved.

9) THE GENTLEMAN GORILLA

A member of the Legion of Legions, the mightiest super-team of the Polyverse, The Gentleman Gorilla and his cohort were faced with the end of everything at the hands of The Absolute. Fortunately, the team managed to turn themselves fictional, beaming messages from a nano-universe into reality, causing the citizens (read: us) to create fictional superheroes in their image, preserving their existence.

At least, that’s what I think happened, but it’s a Grant Morrison comic book, so there’s a chance that I’m misreading it and/or that it constituted a spell that already altered reality, one of the two.

8) MR. MISBEHAVIOR

A minor-league criminal and troublemaker, Roland Boyd’s ability to fire powerballs of unknown energy got him out of his abusive home, but continues to get him INTO trouble at every turn. Thanks to his charm, he has collected a group of like-minded super-associates (known in his reality as SPIS or Super-Powered Individuals)  who operate as The Trouble Troop. He’s mostly a snatch-and-grab kinda guy, without larger plans, but he’s made himself a name as a nuisance, and he even pulls off a yellow power tie with a peaked leather cap.

7) SUAVE

Always perfectly tailored, the villain known only as Suave was a long-time foe of Rogue Sun, and the first to battle his successor. To his credit, Suave immediately realized that he wasn’t facing the same hero at all, nearly defeating the neophyte hero in his first outing. A thief by trade, his mirrored mask hides a calculating mind and his sword is more than just a cool accessory: It can become an energy blade. Whatever else he has going on remains an untold story… for now.

6) THREADNEEDLE

One of the most enigmatic cosmic beings of the Marvel Universe, Threadneedle seems to exist in a strange, meta world, viewing the goings on of the multiverse in the form of stories. Specifically, he sees films and books, and on one remarkable occasion, led a team of Marvels to the truth of their tale by manifesting a comic book shop, complete with back issues of comics that simply could not exist, some featuring the very heroes he was trying to guide. When last seen (as of this writing, anyway), he broke the fourth wall to tell readers that you should always leave room for a sequel, so I expect we’ll see him again.

5) EVEN STEVEN

Seemingly another cosmic being, though little is known of his true nature, Even Steven is obsessed with balance, making certain that every fight is a fair one. In fact, he seems to have the power to even the score, creating a knife out of the ether to oppose a knife-fighter, gaining superhuman strength to battle a bruiser, and so on. His soliloquies on the absolute need for balance are reminiscent of Steve Ditko’s objectivist heroes, like Mister A or The Question, both of whom are also evident in the character’s design.

4) DEAD END

Pretty much an all-around monster in all ways, Jack Parks lives for torture, chaos, and bloody mayhem. Once an abused high school nerd, Dead End is now an assassin for hire with impossible luck that allows him to make the most improbable shots, escape clean from inescapable situations, and kill with something as simple as a thrown coin.

His logo is a flaming basketball, and the story of why will chill your blood and certainly lessen your faith in humanity.

3) SHERLOCK MORIARTY

The last scion of the legendary Moriarty crime family, Sherlock is a master of mystic arts as well as the requisite genius. He realized too late that he was actually in love with his Holmes family nemesis, moments after condemning Holmes’ soul to a strange netherworld. Having ended the Holmes bloodline, he is now forced to take Holmes’ place in a legendary guild of assassins known as The Infinite Seven, with a little help from his pet demon, Watson.

2) MR. MACHINE GUN

The son of the legendary Vanderslice gun manufacturing family, Benjamin Vanderslice was captured by the Axis during WWII and experimented on by Nazi scientists. After amputating his right hand, they replaced it with a machine gun prosthetic, sending him out to fight crime in a tuxedo and tails. Of course, whether the gun has a mind of its own or whether Ben is having psychotic hallucinations that it does is both unclear and unimportant to his brand of lethal metal-jacketed justice.

1) DOCTOR POSITRON

Despite appearing to be just another middle-aged science teacher (who might have a slight resemblance to Groucho Marx), Hamilton Thompson is in truth an android. In the strictest sense, he’s actually at least FIVE androids, each of whom has a fully functional mind, but who share information. One of him is actually the manager of a convenience store near PS238, the School for Metahuman Prodigies, while most of him works at the school proper as the foremost expert in superhuman abilities and the genetics thereof.

Once again, this week’s topic, Ten Suit-And-Tie Supers, is all me, but feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra to suggest a topic of 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, especially since Daredevil and Moon Knight have both adopted this look in place of the usual tights in recent years. Either way, the comments section is below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!

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