Real Name: Marty Eastman

Identity/Class: Chemically enhanced human, later cyborg

Occupation: Adventurer

Affiliations: Blitz(partner), Whiz Kids

Enemies: Unknown

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Cyclone

Base of Operations: Earth A

First Appearance: Big Bang #3 (Caliber)

Powers/Abilities: Able to move at superhuman speeds

History: Cyclone was the sidekick of the Blitz, superhuman speedster and member of the Round Table of America. After adventuring together for many years, the Blitz was killed in an explosion in the late 1980’s. Cyclone was crippled by the blast, but with the aid of cybernetic legs returned to action as Overdrive in the mid ’90’s.

Comments: The explosion that killed the Earth A Blitz and crippled Cyclone was first mentioned in Big Bang # 4 (Caliber series), but it has never actually been depicted.

Thanks to Chris Adams for information about this character.

Real Name: Shadow Lady

Identity/Class: Living hologram (or perhaps human mutate – see comments)

Occupation: Crimefighter

Affiliations: Maize Day, Hank Quillup

Enemies: Dr Reizenscheine

Known Relatives: Veronica Prescott (source of her image), Dr Aloysious Prescott (father of the real Veronica)

Aliases: Veronica Prescott

Base of Operations: Unknown.

First Appearance: Anvil Anthology #1

Powers/Abilities: Able to become solid or intangible at will. Her limitations are that she must have a source of light for her powers to function. In darkness, she loses consciousness (conversely, a strong enough light source energises her to the extent that she can run up a building at super-speed, and even reverse a fall from a great height). She must also stay within 50 miles of Veronica’s “Shadow Ray Transmitter”, or her powers will fade.

As a reflection of Veronica, Shadow Lady also has a duplicate of the “Shadow Ray Transmitter”. This can be used to produce a powerful beam of light to dazzle her enemies. It also has at least one other function. When Shadow Lady materialises, she is wearing the same clothes that Veronica does: these are replaced by the costume, which is “literally painted on” by the device. (The scene in which Veronica simply changes into the Shadow Lady costume is perhaps explained by the fact that it was a dream sequence). When no longer needed, The Shadow Lady is simply erased by a beam from Veronica’s transmitter.

History: New York City, 1947. Beautiful young Veronica Prescott is getting ready for a date. An explosion outside her apartment alerts her to the jewelry store across the street being robbed.

Quickly changing into the costume of her alter-ego, The Shadow Lady, she pursues the getaway car in her high powered roadster. Dazzling the crooks with her car headlights and her hand held weapon, she leaps aboard the vehicle, easily overpowers the occupants and takes the wheel, only to gasp in horror as she sees a removal van hurtling towards her.

(So went Shadow Lady’s first appearance in the pages of Anvil Anthology #1. When Anvil ceased publication, the character moved over to Big Bang, where the above four page story was reprinted in BB #16.)

“Murder by Microphone” begins where the first story leaves off, with the car going off the road and crashing into a ravine. The smell of gasoline means that Shadow Lady has only moments to get herself and the crooks out of the car, but it’s too late: there is another explosion . . .

. . . And Veronica wakes up in her own bed. She had “retired” Shadow Lady at the end of WW II, but now she is haunting her dreams. (She had fallen asleep with the radio on and wakes up in time to hear a murder during a live radio broadcast. Shadow Lady comes out of retirement to investigate).

Sometime before America’s involvement in WW II, Veronica and her father went to an uncharted island in the Pacific, in search of a meteor. This meteor contained a crystal, dubbed the “Lumen Diffuser”, with unique properties, which Shadow Lady used to battle Nazi spies and save hundreds of lives.

Veronica works as a lab assistant to her father, Dr Aloysious Prescott. His other assistant, the hormonally charged Hank Quillup is Veronica’s would be suitor, while red haired model Maize Day is her best friend. None of them are aware of Veronica’s connection to Shadow Lady. At first we are led to believe that Veronica is the Shadow Lady (she wears no mask or other disguise) but it turns out that Shadow Lady is a duplicate of Veronica, a mirror reflection brought to life by the mysterious “Lumen Diffuser” housed in Veronica’s “Shadow Ray Transmitter”. Shadow Lady looks just like Veronica of course. She also has all of her memories, skill, courage and intelligence as well as the powers inherent in being what is effectively a sentient “hard-light” hologram, chiefly that she can become solid or intangible at will.

Comments: Thanks to Chris Adams for information and images. He notes “To my knowledge, no actual origin story has been published yet, However, her origin is alluded to in the 3 part story “Murder by Microphone (BB #17, 21 and 26) and also in a text feature in BB#27. However, the two versions contradict each other. (I’ve listed the first above and written the profile as if it were the correct one, while listing the second origin below.)

The origin presented in BB #27 differ s in that in 1939 Veronica and her father were held prisoner on the uncharted island by criminal scientist, Dr Reizenscheine. Veronica was exposed to the rays of his experimental “Twilight Inhibitor” device and gained the ability to become intangible or a “living shadow” at will. As Shadow Lady, Veronica fights crime until 1955, when she is stranded on the dark side of the moon, with no light source to activate her powers

As Shadow Lady was originally created independently of Big Bang Comics, it is unclear whether she exists on Earth A, Earth B, or in some other reality. She has never appeared in any other stories, or with any other BB characters. This independent creation might also explain the apparent inconsistencies between BB #16 and 27 and “Murder by Microphone”

Inspired in part by the Quality Comics ’40’s heroine, The Phantom Lady, and by “Good Girl Art” pin-ups, Shadow Lady is distinguished by perhaps the most detailed art in Big Bang History. The sequences in which Shadow Lady “suits up” or Veronica simply gets dressed take up a lot of panels. It’s a cliche, but the probable reason that no one notices that Shadow Lady looks just like Veronica, is that no one is looking at her face . . . .”

Real Name: Unknown

Identity/Class: Normal human

Occupation: Unknown

Affiliations: Knight Watchman

Enemies: Red Ted

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unknown

First Appearance: Big Bang Comics #29 (Big Bang, February 2000)

Powers/Abilities: Unknown

History: Unknown.

Comments: Though in reality the Spook was only created in 2000, within the backstory created by Big Bang Comics, this Spirit pastiche was supposedly a pulp magazine character created by Isaac “Izzy” Erwin.

Thanks to Chris Adams for information and images.

Molly Wilson

Identity/Class: Human transformed by magic

Occupation: Librarian

Friends: Mother Nature, Professor Eureka, Boom-Boom the Thunder Cat

Enemies: Dr Hy Q Binana, Tornado Girl, the Sinister snake

Known Relatives: Eve L. Wilson (sister), Philip and Agnes Wilson (parents)

Alias: the World’s Strongest Girl

Base of Operations: the town of Danville

Powers/Abilities: The powers of nature and abilities of its animals. Able to fly like a bird, strong as an elephant, the sight of an eagle, skin as hard as a diamond, etc. Also able to pass her abilities temporarily to someone else.

History: Fourteen year old Molly Wilson locked the front door of the library, hanging up the “Closed” sign. It was after hours, but the young librarian’s workday wasn’t over until all the books were filed back onto the shelves.

She worked slowly, pushing a cart full of books through the deserted library and humming happily to herself. She was in no hurry to get back to her lonely room at the orphanage.

Molly stopped suddenly, staring at a door on the back wall. “Strange,” thought Molly, “That door was never there before!” And it was the sort of door that a person couldn’t help BUT to notice, painted bright red like the doors at the Chinese restaurant down the street.

“Gosh, I’d better make sure this new door is locked,” said the little librarian, but when she turned the handle, the door opened. Molly peered in. She saw a long dim hallway, lit by flickering candles. Colorful doors were spaced down either side of the corridor: red, blue, yellow, purple – – all colors of the rainbow.

Halfway down the hallway, a green door stood open and a pale light spilled out. As soon as Molly stepped through the doorway into the hall, the door swung shut behind her, but the plucky girl wasn’t frightened. She nade her way toward the open doorway.

It was dark inside the room. A solitary light burned on a table in the distance. Molly walked toward the light, hoping to find a telephone but there was nothing on the table except a large leatherbound book and a small wooden box.

The book was open, but the pages were blank. The young girl closed the book to see what its title was and gasped “Jeepers!” There, imprinted in the leather of the volume’s front cover was her name – – Molly Wilson!

Surprised, Molly dropped the book. But the pages were no longer blank. A paragraph read “Molly opened the box and was astonished to find a magical necklace and ring, each containing a blazing emerald just as the book had said. She put them on, touched the ring to the gem of the necklace and said the magic word written in the book – – .”

Molly opened the box, and sure enough, there was a necklace and a ring inside, resting on a red satin lining. Both featured a large green emerald. The ring looked too large, yet fit perfectly on her finger. She whispered “Magic?” Then Molly pulled the necklace over her head and touched the stone of the ring to that of the necklace.

“What was the magic word?” she frowned, “It wasn’t in the book!” Molly looked back to the open volume, and there it was in capital letters. She read it aloud: “ALAKAZAM!”

There was a brilliant flash as lightning erupted from the stones of Molly’s ring and necklace, followed by the deafening roar of thunder. She felt the magical electricity crackle throughout her body, not hurting her at all but rather filling her with power!

When the smoke cleared, Molly couldn’t believe her eyes. Her blue frock was gone, replaced by a green frock cinched by a belt with a lightning bolt on the buckle. She felt strong and confident in a way she never had before. “Jeepers – – what’s going on here?” she asked, reaching for the book to find some answers.

But it wasn’t on the table. A kindly old lady sat at the table on a stool that wasn’t there before, holding the book on her lap. “Tsk tsk,” said the grandmotherly-type, wagging a finger, “You can’t simply read about your life, Thunder Girl. You have to start living it.”

The old woman actually turned out to be Mother Nature herself, who had chosen Molly to be the champion of all things good in the ancient battle between Good and Evil. Mother Nature bestowed upon Molly the powers and abilities of all animals of the world. Though she sometimes drew upon other powers, Thunder Girl normally made use of the following: the flight of the eagle, the wisdom of the owl, the strength of an elephant, skin as hard as a diamond, and the eyes of a hawk.

Thunder Girl soon acquired an arch enemy in the form of Dr Hy Q Binana, a laboratory chimpanzee who gained a human genius intellect in an experiment conducted by Molly’s friend, Prof Eureka. Dr Binana referred to Thunder Girl as “the Big Green Cheesecake”. When Dr Binana used science to duplicate Thunder Girl’s powers in a villain he called Tornado Girl, it was revealed that “females are better able to store the cosmic energy” that gives them the powers of nature.

In the mid 1940s the evil Dr Binana opened a dimensional portal to Earth A, where it was 1964. Attempting to destroy both Earths with a super bomb on Earth A, he was thwarted when Thunder Girl leapt through the portal from her native Earth B to stop him triggering the device. Both Earths were saved and the portal was closed, trapping Thunder Girl and Dr. Binana on Earth A.

Making the best of it, Thunder Girl changed back to Molly, but the differences of the forces of nature between the two Earths was so great, that Molly got amnesia. Found by Ultiman (who was unaware of her dual identity) she was identified by her fingerprints as a missing person and returned to her parents.

On Earth A, Molly Wilson who had been a grown woman, an archaeologist who had disappeared while looking for the lost Fountain of Youth. Not only was this Molly not an orphan (having elderly parents), but she also had a younger sister named Eve. Everyone assumed that the younger, amnesiac Molly must have been the result of an encounter with the fountain of youth.

A freak electrical storm seemed to be terrorizing Molly, and Ultiman was astonished when a bolt of lightning got past him and struck her, transforming Molly into Thunder Girl and returning her memory. Unable to return to Earth B or to change back into Molly, Thunder Girl “disguised” herself by braiding her hair, adopting a phony pair of glasses and wearing ordinary clothes over her costume.

She went to high school, which caused problems since she had no knowledge of anything that happened after WW II and had to learn to like the Beatles instead of Benny Goodman. A further complication was that while Eve was a fan of Thunder Girl, she quite rightly suspected “Molly” of not being her real sister.

Thunder Girl joined the Whiz Kids as a way to acclimate herself to the 1960s, and soon found a safe way to transform back to Molly. By 1980 she had joined the Round Table of America along with most of the original Whiz Kids. Molly was now middle aged, (Big Bang characters age in real time), but Thunder Girl was barely out of her teens, aging only during the time she actually spends on earth.

The older Molly gets, the harder it is for her to adjust to the age difference between her identities.

Real Name: Chris Kelly

Secret Identity: Adopted the persona of deceased brother Carl

Nickname: The Man of the Future; The Ultimate Human Being

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Astronaut

Affiliations: Round Table of America;

Known Relatives: Carl (brother), Arlene (ex-wife), Christine (daughter, Ultragirl)

Base of Operations: Earth A

Powers/Abilities: Ultrastrength, invulnerability. Fluoroscopic vision, laser vision and ultra-hearing. Able to fly, possesses ultraspeed.

History: Lt. Chris Kelly was an astronaut aboard a Gemini space capsule which was struck by an radioactive meteor. The radiation killed his fellow astronaut, but Kelly survived re-entry to Earth where he was terminally ill with radiation sickness. Luckily, his body metastasized and instead of killing him absorbed the radiation, transforming it into energy. Kelly became a human battery: the ultimate human being!

Kelly, already famous as one of the original astronauts was now doubly so, his illness and miraculous recovery having played out on the TV. The press was calling him the “ultimate human being” and eventually Ultiman. Unfortunately, the radiation absorbed by Kelly’s body played havoc with the delicate instruments in space capsules and even airplanes, and it appeared that his military career was over.

President Kennedy was intrigued by this charismatic new superstar and tapped him as the spokesman for the physical fitness program. The U.S. government was ecstatic to have a superhuman the payroll and gave him his own department and office at the Pentagon. General Black was his liaison and Lori Lake became his personal secretary.

Kelly took on the job to help mankind, refusing be used as a military super weapon and kept his word, despite increasing pressure from succeeding Presidents. Ultiman’s very existence spurred a new arms race, with all countries striving to develop their own super humans.

Ultiman ended up either fighting or banding together with many of these other super weapons. His arch-enemy was the brilliant but evil Dexter Cortex who got even smarter by plugging his brain directly into a computer. Cortex become as much machine as man, sending robot drone bodies out to harass Ultiman.

Perhaps the most dangerous villain of all was Chris Kelly’s much younger brother Carl, who was jealous of Chris’ powers and fame. Carl was in love with Lori Lake and always looking for a way to make his famous brother look bad in front of her and the world. He eventually fell in with a criminal crowd. After a stint in reform school, the now grown up Carl re-emerged looking nearly identical to his brother. Working with Cortex, Carl found a way to finally steal his brother’s powers, only to perish while saving the powerless Chris.

Being a full-time hero and celebrity grated on Chris Kelly. He created his Secret Citadel in an extinct volcano as a place where he could get away from it all. After brother Carl’s death, Chris assumed his brother’s identity and secured him a job on the payroll at the Pentagon, giving himself a measure of peace and quiet. It also gave him an inside track to the criminal world, where Carl was known as a shady character.

Ultiman’s main weakness is that his body burns the atomic energy and must be periodically recharged by the Ultranium (ultra-uranium) meteor. At first it operated like Popeye eating spinach. Over time, he had to expose himself to larger and larger doses, suffering from radiation poisoning in the process until his body could adapt and absorb the energy. His powers have varied in intensity thereafter, and if Ultiman exerts himself too much, he is in danger of exhausting them.

Tired of the radiation sickness and failing powers, Chris Kelly let the powers fade away in the 1980s and retired to a fantastic house in the Rocky Mountains with his new bride. It wasn’t Lori Lake, but a TV reported named Arlene Arliss. Using his army of robot doubles to fight. The marriage eventually failed, Mrs. Kelly not liking the solitary life and then becoming fearful of the radiation effects on her and their baby when Ultiman ended his retirement.