#Elroy

[unteriors]

S Main Street, Elroy, Wisconsin.

[preg-bese]

Something is wrong! 😥

[olath124]

Elroy y'are such a nerd.

And yeah, he doesn't have eyes implants so he needs his glasses (or more usually lenses) to see something.

"But I'm hot anyway".

Sweet child of mine, where do you get all your confidence?

Give some to me, I beg you.

Obligatory text chain:

[dire-vulture]

bane share bane share bane share

[pulpsandcomics2]

The Jetsons

[jellhound]

Elroy...It's been awhile...

[superman86to99]

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #1 (April 1994)

DOOMSDAY IS COMING... BACK! Superman has been having nightmares about Doomsday, which is the natural psychological reaction when someone kills you. In his dreams, Doomsday has already wrecked the entire Justice League (again) and goes after Superman, who turns into a scared little boy in the middle of the fight. Just when Doomsday is about to knock lil' Clark's head off...

...he wakes up. It's the same dream every night. So, Superman decides to do the healthy thing when something is scaring you to that point. No, not visit a therapist -- finding and killing it.

But where is Doomsday these days, anyway? The last time anyone saw him, he was floating through space after the evil Cyborg Superman tied his body to an asteroid and tossed him there. As it happens, just when Superman is thinking about finding Doomsday, a cargo spaceship headed for Apokolips runs across that asteroid and takes it in, thinking they might be able to sell it to Darkseid as a big paperweight or something. By the time the ship lands in Apokolips, everyone inside is dead -- and soon, so is everyone in its general vicinity. As Doomsday tears through Apokolips' residents, one seems to recognize him and calls him "the Armageddon Creature," which for some reason makes me think of Steve Buscemi.

Even Darkseid seems freaked out by Doomsday. He sends his elite guard to slow him down with their fancy exo-armors, which "can stop anything"... except, it soon becomes clear, Doomsday's fists. When Doomsday kills one of the guards, a little gizmo on his back starts glowing and something jumps into the guard's armor -- it's the Cyborg Superman, whose consciousness had been hiding there since Superman Superman destroyed his previous body!

So now they have two maniacs destroying poor old Apokolips (what did they ever do to deserve this?!). Desaad wants to call the Darkstars or L.E.G.I.O.N. or some other cosmic police force for help, but Darkseid would rather evacuate the entire planet than do that.

Meanwhile, after talking it over with Lois (who isn't exactly thrilled about her fiancé going after a creature that has already killed him once), Superman realizes who can help him find Doomsday: the Linear Men, the protectors of the time-stream, since they can find anything, anywhere, anytime. He stands outside young Matthew Ryder's home, causing the adult, time-traveling Ryder to materialize and ask Superman why he remembers a famous superhero loitering in his back yard one night. Superman asks the Linear Men to give him all the info they have on Doomsday, but Matthew hits him with the "sanctity of the time-stream" stuff again.

However, Matthew's more hot-headed (pun intended) alternate reality version, Waverider, manages to give Superman a "subtle" clue about Doomsday's current location:

Back in Apocalypse Apokolips, Darkseid decides to step in personally and hit Doomsday with his legendary Omega Beams. No one can withstand the unsurpassed force of the--! Oh, wait, no, Doomsday did, pretty easily. And then beat the living crap out of Darkseid. After seeing that, Desaad is like "screw this," disobeys his master's orders, and calls the Justice League headquarters... just as Superman has stepped in to ask for help in finding Doomsday. Desaad ends their intergalactic Zoom call, but this makes Superman put two and two together and decipher Waverider's hint.

Now aware that Doomsday is in Apokolips (but still not knowing if he's alive or dead), Superman borrows a Mother Box from the JL's Oberon and teleports there, only to immediately run into the Cyborg breaking shit up. Superman is ready to fight him, but the Cyborg hits him with something more devastating than any blast: a live video feed of Doomsday, alive and kicking. Well, punching.

And then he hits Superman with a blast. While the Cyborg is distracted torturing Superman, Desaad uses the opportunity to open up a Boom Tube near Doomsday to teleport him away (which they probably should have done in the first place, huh). Superman flies off to stop it, but he's too slow: Doomsday has been sent to some other planet... perhaps Earth?! TO BE CONTINUED!

Creator-Watch:

This marks the glorious return of inker Brett Breeding, who we hadn't seen since the end of "Reign of the Supermen" because he was focusing on this miniseries. This time, he's actually providing finished art to Dan Jurgens' layouts, and the result is probably his finest work yet. We've all missed Breeding in the regular books (no disrespect to Josef Rubinstein), but that makes this mini feel extra special and like a prestige event worthy of that cardboard cover and the extra three bucks. More art gushing in Don Sparrow's section below!

Plotline-Watch:

No idea if this is intentional or not, but the final page, with Superman failing to catch Doomsday's Boom Tube and wondering if he stopped himself out of fear, reminds me of the classic final pages of Jack Kirby's Forever People #1 (1971), when he intentionally stops in the middle of a Boom Tube trip. Not many comics end with an emotionally devastated Superman kneeling between some rocks in front of an orange background after just barely not making a Boom Tube trip.

Superman mentions to Lois that one of the reasons he wants to find Doomsday's body is because he remembers how obsessed people in ancient Krypton became with genetic engineering (as seen in the World of Krypton miniseries), and he worries someone might recreate him or make an army of Doomsdays. That's a pretty clever way of delivering information that will become relevant when we find out Doomsday's origin, next issue.

ELROY SIGHTING! Of course that little jerk wouldn't wanna miss an issue where his rival for Lois' affection has serious chances of suffering a violent death...

Don Sparrow says: "A small nod to the 'Emerald Twilight' storyline happening in Green Lantern, as Superman mentions he can no longer ask Green Lanterns for help in outer space." Find out why at the @greenlantern94to04 blog, which just reached Green Lantern #50! (I'm hoping to have that blog catch up to this one by the time we hit Zero Hour at least, so we can crossover.)

Another important observation from Don: "Superman’s a boxers guy now, which is a switch from the tight-whiteys he wore in the now-famous Superman #50. No, I don’t feel like I’m wasting my life, why do you ask? (Weigh in with your comment—do you think Superman is a boxer guy, or briefs? NOT about whether I’m wasting my life.)" I'm gonna go with briefs on the outside, boxers on the inside. He's a man of two worlds!

As he leaves the Ryder residence, Superman tells Matthew's confused dad to "teach your son to do what's right -- while you still have time." Am I the only one who thinks the even more confused little Matthew got a belting after that?

At the JL HQ, Maxima offers to come along to Apokolips to have her own rematch with Doomsday, but Superman says no because he wants to face his fears alone. I feel kinda bad for her, but she must be pretty used to Superman turning her down by now.

I like this little car parked outside Darkseid's palace. Did a cabbie get so lost that he ended up there? Did he still charge $6,50?

Not even the Linear Men could figure out where exactly this miniseries fits in the continuity. This obviously takes place after Action #694 (February 1994), the issue where we last saw Doomsday floating in space, and before the Zero Hour event (September 1994), due to certain events involving Matthew and Waverider. Thing is, that Action issue takes place during the long storyline when Superman is losing control of his powers, which doesn't seem to be a problem in this miniseries. That storyline ends in Action #699, which is also the first part of the "Battle for Metropolis" storyline, which leads directly to Metropolis becoming a big pile of rubble in Action #700. Metropolis seems fine in this mini, so this must be taking place during Superman's power woes, but something about him being stronger than usual during such an important rematch doesn't seem right to me. Let's all just blame this on Zero Hour messing with the time-stream.

Patreon-Watch:

Our patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca got to read half of this post back in November, because Don got a bit ahead of himself, and now they get to read half of our upcoming post on Man of Steel #28, because it happened again! Take advantage of our absentmindedness by joining us at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

Speaking of Don, he's got way more to say about this issue, so keep reading...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

Some context behind the art on this issue:  While I was essentially a DC-only kid in the early 90s, you simply couldn’t ignore the revolution happening at Image Comics.  I still maintain that those early Image books weren’t popular only, or even mainly because of the creators, and certainly not because of the stories—I think what set them apart were the incredible production values.  (The fact that there isn’t that much appetite for trade paperbacks of early Spawn or Savage Dragon issues bears this out.) The paper quality and digital colouring that Image Comics offered blew the doors off of what DC was publishing regularly.  And it wasn’t that DC was incapable of using the same techniques, or paper supply—indeed the astonishingly illustrated Batman movie adaptation from 5 years earlier showed they could.  So while I found Image comics to have enviable art, but no stories to my taste, I couldn’t help but wish that my beloved Superman comics could look as nice as the Image comics on the newsstands.  That’s one part of what made these issues so exciting.  Of course, a rematch with Superman and Doomsday was another attraction, and as if we needed a third reason, this mini-series reunited Jurgens and Breeding, who weren’t the usual team on the superbooks at the time. 

After all that, we start with the cover, and the simplicity would certainly make it jump off the stands.  Jurgens was always the most posteriffic Superman artist, where the action poses would make a great pinup, but without sacrificing story.  This cover is a great example of that, with a determined Superman flying into battle on a computer-generated background of flames on the front cover, with Doomsday stomping into action on the back cover.  Even the title pages boast some great production values, as the brushed steel photoshop texture and rounded gradients on the rivets make for a much more photo-realistic finish than usual. 

Issues like this one are tricky, because it’s tempting for me to comment on every darn page, because the art is so consistently at a high level.  So, in the interests of keeping this post from becoming a novel (yes, I know I went overboard in the Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special issue!), I’ll just highlight the very best of the best.

The slow buildup of the early pages are very well done, as the peaceful dreamlike setting of Clark’s childhood farmhouse give way to the adult nightmare of Doomsday.  The full page splash on page 4 is perhaps the defining image of Doomsday (one we saw repeated in modern times, as it was swiped last year in the aforementioned 30th Anniversary issue).

I like seeing the Superman-era Justice League (even if it’s among the wreckage), though my copy has a colouring error on Blue Beetle’s costume).  

The outer space scenes, of the doomed space freighter crew have a scary, claustrophobic feel, and I can definitely remember my heart racing seeing Doomsday awake (even though we knew he was a long time ago).  The design on this ship is reminiscent of the semi-canonical Superman/Aliens mini-series that’ll come out in about a year’s time.

As any loyal reader knows, I love good Lois art, so seeing Lois in her pajamas is a treat when handled by this art team.  Later in the issue we get a Darkseid that rivals John Byrne himself for my favourite depiction of the lord of Apokolips.

We are also introduced to the new look Cyborg Superman (Jurgens tried hard to establish his name as simply “The Cyborg” but it never really took—even with Vic Stone not in the comics of the time, I think DC fans always thought of “Cyborg” as a good guy) which is one of my favourite looks for him.  I think I may slightly prefer the look he had in mid-2000s Green Lantern comics overall, but even they took the red and black look established here.  It’s a small panel, but I remember copying and re-copying the little shot of a very handsome Superman flying toward the camera on page 26.  The subtle gradients in the colouring really add a lot. 

Back to Apokolips, the simple silhouette of Darkseid using his omega beams is a stunner, especially with the sizzle effect at the edge of the beams.

Not sure I pictured Darkseid having red blood, as we do (dark gray maybe?  Black?) but the image of someone as imposing as Darkseid yelping in pain is definitely one that will linger.  For pure cartooniness, I love the panel of Desaad’s shock at seeing Darkseid KO’d.  After seeing the Lord of the Rings films, I always pictured Brad Dourif as Desaad, but at this time (and certainly seeing this panel) I think Marty Short would have made a great one. 

I appreciate the Justice League being involved, even tangentially, given their involvement in the first Doomsday battle.  Though Maxima’s costume is technically more demure than when Superman was in the league (in mourning for Superman she updated her look in Justice League America #71) as she’s covered chin to toes, she somehow seems more naked than ever in these pages.    

There are a couple reused panels in this comic, which stand out—page 40 reuses the famed Doomsday portrait mentioned earlier and that same page inserts a shot of the Cyborg’s eyes that is clipped from page 43.  Not the end of the world, but noticeable to me.   As Superman emerges from the Boom Tube, I like the blue-tinged lighting on his costume, some good colouring there.

Lastly, the body language as Superman passes by the closed Boom Tube that transported Doomsday elsewhere is well observed. 

SPEEDING BULLETS:

This mini-series also highlighted an unfortunate trend of the early-to-mid 90s—that anything really big rarely happened in the regular titles, but was relegated to special—and enormously more expensive—special issues or mini-series.  Despite this story being seismic in importance, it was mostly ignored by the events in the tightly-linked Superman titles at the time.  Which to me felt like a missed sales opportunity, certainly the rematch between Superman and Doomsday would have bolstered sales line-wide, had they done it in the regular books.  But having a new-reader friendly self-contained story, by a single writing and art team AND a high price point won out in the end.  This was also true in the Batman titles, where pivotal characters like Azrael and Bane were introduced in prestige format one shots or mini-series rather than the monthly titles.

Maybe another reason this story was confined to a mini-series—it’s quite gory in some places, perhaps too much so for a code book?

Back in the 90s, they’d always play it coy about whether Superman and Lois have a sexual relationship, but as in the past, they do give hints to support one reading or the other. On the one hand, they keep separate apartments, but on the other, they do have potentially meaningful captions like “hours later” that may contain multitudes.

I gotta say, I was sorta surprised and impressed that DeSaad didn’t immediately make a power play in order to rule Apokolips himself.  Though, he likely knew that no matter what he’d need someone as powerful as Darkseid (or Orion, or Mr. Miracle) to combat Doomsday.

I do get a kick that even under duress, DeSaad still officiously signs off with a “DeSaad out!”, Seacrest style.

It’s grim, but the expression on the face of the dead inspector is unintentionally hilarious to me.  Almost like it begs for one more word bubble. [Max: Don's gonna hit us with a "Totally Rad!" isn't he?]

[Max: ...I stand corrected.]

[little-whats-her-name]

Elroy the eggman is very unhappy that he had to pay his taxes today

[unteriors]

S Main Street, Elroy, Wisconsin.

[nearlyisms]

Human names, but based on a cartoon

Bonus points if you reblog with the pet's name in the tags

[olath124]

Again, Elroy, I'm having a bit of fun with the guy!

He's the reason why I changed the mods in the first place...

[dire-vulture]

eh you know what. m pose banescale share :D

Colupis (he/him), Rauscher (she/her) Elroy (he/they), Pirouline (he/they), and Bight (they/them)! I just got Bight the other day to match the accent, still not 100% sure on tert but i love them so much haha

[idontthinkimokaymentally]

Hello there Elroy fans.

[somardani-reblogs]

🖤

# Damien Vignaux # Elroy 📷

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #512 (May 1994)

FINALLY: The climax of the Super-Superman saga, which was getting about as bloated as Superman himself in this issue's cover. After coming back from the dead, Superman went from having no powers to having too much power: it started with him occasionally misjudging his strength or commenting that things are easier to lift than usual, and eventually led to every single issue having a moment where he accidentally destroys a bridge by winking too hard or something. In Action #698, Superman actually started growing taller and more muscular, leading to the monstrosity you see above.

Last issue, Superman was taken to a space station owned by Project Cadmus where they tried to "safely" siphon his extra energy into space, but that ended with the entire space station blowing up and crashing into Metropolis' bay. Turns out Superman returned to Metropolis just in time to hear Lois Lane's apartment blow up (more on that in the plotlines section below), but he can't comfort her because he's so ridiculously strong that he'd turn her into human jelly if he tried to hug her.

Just when Superman is about to say goodbye to Lois forever, his super-supersenses pick up a convenient disturbance nearby: some rowdy Underworld mutants have attacked the Cadmus transport that happens to be holding Rudy "Parasite" Jones, the power-sucking supervillain. The Underworlders sympathize with Rudy's predicament and free him, and he thanks them for their generosity by turning all of them into skeletons.

Parasite recently got a taste of Superman's enhanced powers in Man of Steel #33 and is itching for another fix, so he tracks Superman down -- and Superman lets himself be tracked. Even though Cadmus already tried to use Rudy's powers to cure Superman's condition, Superman is all out of ideas, so he decides to give him another shot. Last time, their fight had to end because Parasite started parasite-ing some Cadmus workers, so this time, Superman takes them somewhere a little more private: the moon.

After flying them both to the moon, Superman unloads his full heat vision on Parasite, and actually thinks he killed him for a moment... but then Rudy regrows himself as a Doomsday-sized monster with a freaky leech-like mouth. It seems that Rudy truly can't fail.

The good news is that Superman is his normal size again and can actually control his powers. The bad news is that Parasite is much more powerful than Superman now and has no intention to stop knocking him around and absorbing his powers. Uber-Parasite punches Superman through the moon's floor and they end up in... some sort of hidden armory? Turns out they've stumbled upon the moon lair owned by Scavenger, the villain from the latest issue of Superboy, who was probably in the toilet while all of this happened (he doesn't appear in this issue).

Superman is able to use one of the weapons in Scavenger's stash to keep Parasite at bay untii they bump into a teleporter that brings them back to Metropolis -- more specifically, to its sewers. But they're not there for long, because Rudy is still much stronger than Superman and uppercuts him into the sky. The issue ends with an unconscious Superman laying in the rubble as the people of Metropolis wonder if they're gonna have to start wearing black armbands again... TO BE CONTINUED!

Character-Watch:

Debuting the Parasite's bulkier body and leech-faced look, which is the second creepiest incarnation of the character (the creepiest is "Lois Lane," but let's not talk about that here). Everyone's pal Don Sparrow says: "This version of the character would go on to become the most consistent look for the character, though I prefer the original look." Same here, especially because I feel like once he started looking like a monster, they started writing him as such and forgot that he's supposed to be a blue-collar guy named Rudy who was once S.T.A.R. Labs' janitor. He never says stuff like "I feel like I should'a brung roses" anymore, sadly.

Plotline-Watch:

Oh, yeah, the Lois stuff. Last issue, Lex Luthor Jr. got Lois fired from the Daily Planet by hacking into her computer and publishing wacky stories about how he's a "space-alien clone" and somehow Elvis Presley at the same time -- all because Lois uncovered the equally wacky truth about him (you know, that he's Lex Luthor Sr. in a clone body and murdered his personal trainer but then aliens brought her back to life). In this issue, Lois is planning to get her job back by showing Perry her evidence on Luthor, but then her apartment blows up just as she's about to walk in. There goes the evidence!

I know what you're wondering, but don't worry: Lois' cat Elroy is fine, he bolted out of the apartment the moment she opened the door. In fact, he's the one who finds the monstrous Super-Superman hiding in that alley. Elroy's dislike of Clark has been well documented by this blog in this past, but he actually seems to feel sorry for the guy in these panels. That, or he's overwhelmed with joy because he just likes watching Clark suffer.

Incidentally, the scenes between Lois and Clark in the alley are very nice, and further evidence that the often-ignored post-"Reign" period was still capable of producing classic moments. I particularly like that Kesel and Kitson are allowing Lois to be vulnerable for a moment; her entire life just blew up, she can't be a badass 100% of the time.

Another standout scene is the tense moment when the increasingly sick and paranoid Lex "Jr." loads a single bullet into an antique gun (once owned by George S. Patton) and points it at his top lackey, Dr. Happersen, accusing him of being Lois' source. Happersen panics and blurts out that the rat must be Dr. Packard (Luthor's mole inside Cadmus, so this would make him a double rat), while repeating that he's always been loyal. Lex's quick shift from anger to "Hmm. Packard. Yes." is just classic Luthor.

The Underworlders who attack that Cadmus transport do it with the hi-tech weapons Luthor gave them recently, and they even call themselves "Lex-Men" in gratitude (though those giant guns make them look more like "Lex-Force").

The fire chief who tells Lois that her apartment blew up due to a "gas leak" and totally not because of a bomb planted by Luthor is of the opinion that they should just "tear it all down, build a real city of tomorrow." That's intentional foreshadowing for a storyline that's about to start and unintentional foreshadowing for one that will come much, much later. (Spoiler talk: maybe they should have rebuilt Metropolis as a "city of tomorrow" after "Fall of Metropolis," instead of magically restoring it to how it was at this point. They could have debuted the new look in the post-Zero Hour issues, fitting in nicely with the "soft reboot" theme and giving "Fall of Metropolis" more weight in the continuity.)

Patreon-Watch:

As always, a Super-Superman-sized shout out to our patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, and Bol, who last month got to read a Patreon-only post about Man of Steel Annual #3 (an Elseworlds story and therefore out of the scope of this blog). More Elseworlds posts coming soon! Join them here: https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

And now, click through for more commentary from the great Don Sparrow!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We open with a cover that’s about as mid-nineties as it gets, with a grinning parasite riding a metal-head looking Superman in outer space.  The overlaid purple Kirby-dots are a nice touch.

Inside the cover, we are swiftly greeted with Elroy exiting the danger, which we learn a full page splash later is Lois Lane’s apartment detonating from within.   The minimalism of the explosive light is a good choice, though the bulk of Lois’ winter coat makes her look a bit matronly. The effect of Superman’s heat vision crackling behind the space shrapnel is another good bit of colouring.

Ditto on the next page, where Lois and the fire chief are warmly lit from the flames of her apartment. 

A little later we briefly meet an Underworlder running a strong risk of a copyright infringement suit from Marvel, as apart from the colouring, he looks for all the world like one of Spider-Man’s goblin-based villains.  Actually now that I look at it, the other Underworlder attacking the Cadmus vehicle reminds me of The Lizard, another Spider-Man baddie.  Any other villainous Easter eggs I’m missing? [Max: I see a store-brand Savage Dragon down there, too...]

As Lois and the hulking Superman say their teary goodbyes, there’s a great detail showing the moistness on Lois’ eye.

The effect of Superman’s full force heat vision is well done, later introducing us for the first time to the lamprey-eel faced Parasite.  The fight that follows is perhaps a bit repetitive, particularly since it lasts a full five pages.  But the exposure to the Parasite does the trick, and we’re back to a normal sized Superman.  I know I keep harping on the inconsistency of the size of the overloaded Superman, but it would have been so easy to make his cape a little smaller in the scenes when he was gigantic (to say nothing of the belt and buckle I mentioned last time) so that when he goes back to his normal size, the cape would be the appropriate scale.  I get the tight uniform scaling, for the most part, but the cape is a bit of a head-scratcher.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

While I share the Cadmus agent’s sentiments about country music, “Achy Breaky” as a reference is a full two years after Billy Ray Cyrus’ heyday.

The Lex Luthor is deteriorating storyline is to me the most interesting part of the issue.  It’s hard to tell if he’s behaving more erratically because his clone body is dying (affecting his original brain?) or if it’s he’s getting desperate in his illness.  This seems sloppily unhinged for someone as methodical and controlled as Lex.

In art school a quick rule of thumb that we learned is that every line you add to a face ages that character by a year.  But this logic, Gretchen Kelley must be about a thousand based on her appearance on page 11.  I know the Jim Lee, hatchy style was hot at the time, but she’s looking like Dana Carvey’s Church Lady in places here. [Max: I think it's interesting that Lex never even considers that Dr. Kelley could be Lois' source. She's been with him the longest, but she also calls him out on his BS and apparently tried to defend Lois before this scene started. Is Lex underestimating her, or are his own deeply buried feelings for her clouding his judgment? Isn't that special?]

Lex as a Patton enthusiast?  Interesting idea, and perhaps a callback to Lex’s lair of the silver age, where real life conquerors like Genghis Khan, Nero and Julius Caesar lined his hall of heroes.  I wouldn’t quite put Patton in their ranks, though. [Max: Maybe he should have threatened poor Sydney with Gengis Khan's spear or something like that.]

I rarely refer to the letter columns, but the letters in this issue (addressing that weird Challengers of the Unknown fill-in issue, Adventures #508) features a letter from Jeph Loeb, author of the Challengers of the Unknown maxi-series that #508 referred to.  Loeb will of course become a super-team member himself in about sixty-two issues from now, the lone good writer in a truly terrible era of Superman comics.  In any event, Loeb was touched that his (unfairly largely forgotten) Challengers series lived on in that issue.

[i-like-media]

Some Black History In Classic Doctor Who

Something I've been itching to make a post about as I made my way through classic who! I hope you enjoy ^o^

In the 4th season of Doctor Who (1966), the missing serial "The Smugglers" featured the first black character with a speaking role. This character was named Jamaica and he was played by Elroy Josephs! He was tasked with guarding the captured 1st Doctor, and was later killed for failing to keep guard over him.

Elroy Josephs was born in Jamaica, and besides being an actor he was also a dancer. He became the first black dance lecturer at IM Marsh in Liverpool, which is part of Liverpool John Moores University.

Elroy Josephs is often overlooked for his influence on black British dance and on November 1997, a bench and plaque was unveiled in Elroy's memory at John Moores University.

More about his influence of black dance in Britain can be read here

★

The serial immediately after was called "The Tenth Planet" and this serial featured Earl Cameron as Glyn Williams, the first black astronaut in television (I've seen people say it's actually Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek, since she appeared on Star Trek JUST a month earlier in 1966, though I'd argue the portrayal in Doctor Who is more akin to what we know an astronaut to be. Still, a crazy close call!)

Glyn Williams, alongside another astronaut, discovers the Cyberman home planet Mondas in their rocket. This is the first serial to feature the cybermen, too! Their rocket gets pulled in by Mondas's gravitational pull and they die in an explosion.

Earl Cameron was born in Bermuda, and is well known as the first black actor to take a leading role in a British film! The movie was called "Pool of London" and was released in 1951. It was his performance in this movie that led to him becoming "Britain’s first home-grown, non-American black movie star"!

Earl Cameron passed away in 2020 at the age of 102, making him the 5th Doctor Who cast member to reach his 100th birthday!

★ - ★ - ★

"The Tomb Of The Cybermen (season 5)" and "Terror Of The Autons (season 8)" featured 2 characters, both played by Roy Stewart. Both characters have been criticised for their racist depiction of a black man. In TTOTC, Roy played the character of Toberman, who was a mute servant of an expeditioner and the strongest one of the team. He had no say in any matters and was supposed to be purely muscle. He was partially cyberconverted and sacrificed himself to save everyone.

In TOTA, Roy played the character Tony, a strongman with animal furs also tasked to be brute force. He helped keep the 3rd doctor captive, but was knocked out by Jo Grant.

Born in Jamaica, Roy Stewart came to the UK with the idea to become a doctor, though he ended up changing his mind to start acting. There weren't many black stuntmen out there (they would have white people "black up"). He ended up doing a lot of stunt work and became one of Britain's top black actors/stuntmen! Though, a lot of his earlier work went uncredited.

Roy Stewart also ran a gymnasium in 1954 with a policy allowing people of all races to train together. He also opened a Caribbean restaurant and bar called The Globe in 1960, which he ran until the day he died (2008). The Globe is now one of longest-running nightclubs in London, still with a Caribbean restaurant upstairs.

"Frequented by Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, The Clash and Bob Marley, The Globe became the place to be. Its notoriety was such, that even Mick Jones of The Clash named his album after it and wrote the title song about the nightclub." - The Globe Website

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In season 5 the serial "The Enemy Of The World", Carmen Munroe played the role of Fariah Neguib, a food taster for the powerful politician, Ramón Salamander. She was a food taster by force, and rebelled against Salamander by giving the 2nd Doctor's allies important documents, revealing a black mailing side to the politician. She was shot and died in the arms of the enemy, pridefully refusing to give them information. Though sources are a bit muddy on this (1 sketchy source and the rest is my memory of classic who), Carmen Munroe could very well be the first black woman in Doctor Who. And if not, She is most certainly the first with a prominent speaking role.

Born in Guyana, Carmen Munroe played an instrumental role in the development of black British theatre and representation on tv. She played a good number of leading roles, but is best known for the role of Shirley in British TV sitcom Desmond's. Carmen is also one of the founders of Talawa, the UK's leading black theatre company, which was created in response to the lack of creative opportunities for Black actors and the marginalisation of Black peoples from cultural processes.

Today, Talawa is the primary Black theatre company in the UK, with more than 50 award-winning touring productions from African classics to Oscar Wilde behind it. In total the company has produced more than 80 productions. Our name, Talawa, comes from a Jamaican patois term and means gutsy and strong - Talawa.com

Carmen was also appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), which is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organizations, and public service outside the civil service.

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Hope you enjoyed reading this bit of Doctor Who/Black History! Please feel free to add to this post with more black history in Doctor Who!