by Michael Condon

1. Which JLA villain had a home base in a mostly empty dimension that Zauriel referred to as Limbo?

A. General Zod.
B. Prometheus.
C. Asmodel.
D. The Key.

2. Kari Limbo was a psychic who dated two superheroes in succession. She dated the second after a horrible fate befell the first. Who were they?

A. Boston Brand (Deadman) and Green Arrow.
B. Jim Corrigan (Spectre) and Dr. McNider (Dr. Mid-Nite.)
C. Jason Blood (Demon) and Dr. Thirteen.
D. Green Lanterns Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan.

3. One pre-Crisis Legionnaire's home limboed between the dimensions. Which one's?

A. Kid Quantum.
B. Kid Psycho.
C. Tyroc.
D. Phantom Girl.

4. Enough about Limbo, how about some rocks? What would have been an acceptable use for blue kryptonite in the Silver Age?

A. Tharok could have used it to disable Mon El or any other Daxamite he found troublesome.
B. Ultraman, Superman's evil counterpart from Earth 3 could have used it energize himself or gain a new superpower.
C. Lois Lane could have used it to incapacitate an overly amorous (at least by Silver Age standards) Bizarro.
D. Lex Luthor could have used it as a last resort in fighting Superman, or as a preferred weapon against Supergirl. The deadly green kryptonite would turn blue after enough of its radioactive material decayed making the rock much less harmful. Blue kryptonite would at best weaken Superman, but no amount would kill him. Thus Lex Luthor would try to avoid using it on him, but would prefer it when fighting Supergirl as even Lex Luthor was not evil enough to want to kill a girl.

5. Which comic book dealt with the career of a teenaged rock singer?

A. Spencer Boyd and the Boys.
B. The Jimmy Thudpucker Experience.
C. The Adventures of Jerry Lewis.
D. Sing Along With Scooter.

6. The Secret Society of Super Villains was a comic from the seventies that dealt with the adventures of a team of supervillains that included such powerhouses as Gorilla Grodd and Sinestro. Their most frequent sparring partner was a heavy hitter who wasn't seeing too much action in other books at the time. Which hero was it?

A. Captain Comet.
B. Martian Manhunter.
C. Dr. Fate.
D. Power Girl.

7. Another comic from the seventies that featured a villain was Kobra. Kobra is a fairly vital villain, appearing in many different books, but his main enemy from his comic hasn't been seen much lately. Who?

A. His father Vikram Paprakandalam. Vikram was a sadhu or Hindu holy man who had renounced the world. He had the mystic ability to project images of himself to his son, and often placed himself in the way of his son's plans. Patricide was the one thing that Kobra refused to do to achieve what he thought was his destined role as ruler of the world. His lover, Eve, killed Vikram without Kobra's knowledge. Kobra was grateful for this, but killed Eve for killing his father.
B. His siamese twin brother Jason Burr. The twins were separated and their parents were told that the baby who would grow up to be Kobra had died. One interesting side effect of the operation was that the two men were psychically linked. Any pain inflicted on Kobra was felt by his brother and any pain inflicted on his brother was felt by Kobra. Kobra managed to kill him after using a neural neutralizer to sever their psychic link.
C. Agent without a passport King Faraday.
D. A rival would-be world conqueror, Dr. Tzin-Tzin.

8. Grant Morrison responded to the Crisis by having a device owned by a super villain start leaking characters from alternate worlds into current continuity. Animal Man managed to solve the problem but the stress managed to send that villain into permanent limbo. (Please note that a new being has taken up that villain's identity). Who was the villain and what was his weapon?

A. The Psycho Pirate and his Medusa Mask.
B. Dr. Destiny and his Materioptikon.
C. Mirror Master and his Mirror of Infinite Worlds.
D. Dr. Alchemy and his Philosopher Stone.

9. Which title, whose main story featured Superman and an eclectic mix of guest stars, had a backup that explained what happened to various characters that had gone into Limbo.

A. World's Finest Comics.
B. The Brave and the Bold.
C. DC Comics Presents.
D. Adventure Comics.

10. What career path did Vril Dox follow after leaving Captain Comet in charge of L.E.G.I.O.N.?

A. He usurped Metron's position as god of knowledge in the New Gods' pantheon.
B. He turned evil and transformed himself into the cyborg Brainiac 13.
C. He reformed the central power battery and became the head of a new Green Lantern Corps.
D. He became a humble botanist.

11. Sometimes it doesn't pay to leave Limbo. In the 90's a new Firebrand got his own series, but unfortunately it faded away without leaving an impression on the DC Universe. Firebrand came back only to die one of the cheapest comic book deaths. What happened?

A. He was stepped on by a Millenium Giant and none of the other superheroes or reporters even noticed.
B. He was asked by the DEO to field test a shrinking mechanism pirated from Ray Palmer, unfortunately, anything other than Ray Palmer that is reduced by his ray explodes after a short period of time. I think the DEO's janitor quit due to that incident.
C. He was eaten by a zombie seal.
D. He was killed in a gladiatorial match with a Checkmate agent that was watched by various supervillains such as the Invisible Destroyer and Captain Cold.

12. Which title featured the exploits of a bunch of ordinary people with super powers who treated superheroing as a 9-5 job?

A. Hero Hotline.
B. Dial H for Hero.
C. Heroes for Hire.
D. The Workforce.

13. The 1993 DC Annuals, titled Bloodlines introduced a new super powered figure in each title. Most of characters, with the notable exception of Hitman did not have much of a future. The new metahumans had a variety of super powers but had a common origin. What was it?

A. A gene bomb developed by the alien Dominators exploded.
B. Each of the New Blood had their metagenes stimulated when a chemical in the saliva of vampire like aliens contacted their spinal fluids.
C. They had all received blood transfusions from a batch that contained Superman's blood. His alien blood had mutagenic effects on the people. He gave the blood as Clark Kent in order to promote a Metropolis blood drive. The nurse who took the blood, Evig Doolb, was Zatanna, a sorceress who works her spells by talking backwards.
D. Vandal Savage, posing as leading endocrinologist ten years before the first appearance of Superman (the dawn of the current heroic age) injected dozens of people with a metagene cocktail whose ingredients came primarily from the Martian Manhunter, but contained snippets from most of the other known metahumans at the time in an attempt to discover how to create a race of supersoldiers. The patients had their immediate problems solved, but most of them died horribly or developed harmful supermutations when the genetic timebomb within them went off. The few who wound up with useful powers were featured in the annuals.

14. One of the New Blood belonged to a family of superheroes and was one of the stars of the title Superboy and the Ravers. Which one?

A. Damage.
B. Half-Life.
C. Razorsharp.
D. Sparx.

15. How did the raver Kaliber get his name?

A. He was a master of all types of firearms. So much a master, that he could defeat foes with ricochets that sent debris falling on his enemies thus keeping him from having to actually shoot anyone.
B. Caliber refers to the size of a pistol barrel or other tube. Kaliber was able to change his size from doll-like to gigantic.
C. As the only good member of the Qwardian race, he was of a higher moral caliber than anyone on his planet.
D. He was born shortly after Qward discovered earth. He was named after Kali the Hindu goddess of murder. His family name was Ber, Qwardian for poison. His younger siblings were named Ghengis and Lizzieborden.

Answers.

1. B. General Zod was the leader of the Silver Age Phantom Zone villains, those Kryptonian criminals that gave Superman a tough time in Superman II.

2. D. Guy Gardner had been exiled to Qward by Sinestro. He was able to see into our world though. Seeing Hal Jordan date Kari Limbo was one of the causes of Guy Gardner's insanity. In Hal's defense, both of them believed that Guy was dead.

3. C. Tyroc's home island of Marzal traveled throughout the infinite earths. Phantom Girl was from Earth's counterpart in an alternate dimension.

4. C. In the Silver Age anything could have a Bizarro counterpart after being exposed to the imperfect duplicating ray. Green Kryptonite exposed to the ray became Blue Krptonite that only affected Bizarros. This does not explain the army of living blue kryptonite men that dwelt in the center of Bizarro world. The Earth 3 Ultraman was energized by regular Green Kryptonite. The current Ultraman is energized by his universe's version of Green Kryptonite, one that doesn't affect Superman at all.

5. D. Spencer Boyd is a rock singer from the DC Universe that has appeared in a few titles. Jimmy Thudpucker is a rock singer from Gary Trudeau's comic strip Doonesburry. Jerry Lewis was one of the most popular comedians of the 1950's and like Bob Hope had a DC Comic named after him.

6. A.

7.B. Vikram is my own creation. Kobra did have a consort named Eve. I don't know if he still has her. I think Dr. Tzin-Tzin, who was a crimelord rather than a world conqueror, was killed a long time ago. I also think he showed up after his death with no mention of his having been dead.

8. A. I invented the Mirror of Infinite Worlds, although the Mirror Master did own mirrors that were gateways to other dimensions.

9. C. World's Finest comics usually featured Batman Superman teamups, but for a while in the early seventies featured Superman with a rotating list of guest stars. In the Seventies and Eighties the Brave and the Bold featured teamups between Batman and an eclectic mix of guest stars. Adventure tended to be an anthology title.

10. D.

11. D. The story, which appeared in this summer's JSA secret files just bothered me. I guess because I don't like to see any character die cheaply. Also, I never took the Gambler or any of his progeny seriously, so his granddaughter-in-law owning an establishment that regularly featured meta-human gladiatorial games didn't seem right. What also didn't seem right was the bloodthirstiness of Captain Cold, a classic Silver Age villain who was in the audience. Granted his lack of a high bodycount is more due to the strenuous efforts of various Speedsters rather than to his conscience, although a soulless Captain Cold racked up an impressive casualty count and helped his fellow rogues clobber the JLA. Killer zombie seals were featured in an issue of Hitman.

12.A. Hero Hotline was a pretty cool concept written by trivia guru Bob Rozakis. It featured not ready for prime time heroes such a Stretch a middle aged Elongated Man clone who had used his powers so much that he was unable to pull himself together, Voice-Over a ventriloquist and Private Eyes, another middle aged hero, this one thin, short and balding but with a pair of binoculars that gave him telescopic, microscopic, X-ray and heat vision. Dial H for Hero was a feature where the star, originally teenager Robby Reed and later a teenaged couple named Chris and Vicki who gained superheroic identities whenever they dialed h-e-r-o on a magical hero dial. The heroes had separate personalities from the teenagers, much like the relationship between Captain Marvel and Billy Batson. Many of the heroes produced by the dial, as well as the villains they fought were submitted by readers. The Hero dial later went to Superboy and the Ravers cast member Hero and Legion of Superheroes mascot Lori Morning. Heroes for Hire was a Marvel comic that featured the superpowered blaxploitation moviestar-like Power Man with the kung fu hero Iron Fist. The Workforce was a rival to the Legion set up by Leland McCauley. At one point, Live Wire, Ultra Boy and Karate Kid were members.

13. B. The Dominators' gene bomb exploded during the Invasion mini-series. Its major effects were increasing the powers of Rhea Jones and Fire (who previously could only breath fire from her mouth) granting Snapper Carr teleportational power, that he lost along with his original hands while a prisoner of the Khunds, and granting powers to a bunch of ordinary folks who became the Blasters a group so deep in Limbo that Thursday night is their poker night with the Green Team and the original Outsiders. Evig Doolb, AKA, Zatanna , was a nurse at a blood drive that Clark Kent was forced by his employer (I think that it was WGBS) to attend in a "Private Life of Clark Kent" story in a Superman Family book. Vandal Savage did conduct human experiments using Martian and other meta-human DNA, but to the best of my knowledge, the only victim was Damage.

14. D.

15. B. Never explicitly stated in the comic, but it seemed like the most likely answer. I just wanted to see if anyone remembered the guy's powers. I originally had the following answer for D but thought that it was so close to the truth that it would be confusing. It was the mid 90's characters were getting vaguely cool sounding names that didn't make sense all the time. Remember Parallax?