WAIT
WHAT
DC COMICS ARE YOU SERIOUS
YOU NAMED A NAZI SUPERVILLAIN AFTER A POISON GAS USED TO KILL JEWS IN THE HOLOCAUST
BOY I SURE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE HIM FIGHT JOHNNY QUICK
WHAAAAAAAAAAAT
because WHAT WHAT WHAT
(although, one must admit, still better than Superboy Prime.)
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Did no editor catch this? Ever?
Holy shit.
*shrug*
Sounds like a character concept that would fit in perfectly in a Garth Ennis book…
FINALLY! I was wondering what it would take to score less than ten percent on the scale, and now I know. Holy crap this is terrible.
Xykon, however, would rank at least a 75%.
This… is just craptacular.
…and I just realized I’ve been on a roller coaster at a theme park called the Zyklon.
I got nothin’.
Idunno, I think it works even better than a normal Nazi Supervillian on the “really wanting to see him get beaten to a pulp and possibly even killed” front.
Wait, does DC Comics even have someone who would do that?
He’s even been used recently in JSA.
If he was created in 1942, it wouldn’t be so bad, but in 1984? Shame on you, Roy Thomas!
I can see making him the Earth-X (sorry, Earth-10) version of the Flash, though.
Wow. Really, wow. But it’s ok because his name just means “Cyclone”, right? Right? It’s not the very depths of tastelessness, right? On a side note, would stealing the Liberty Bell really kick ass? Because even in comic book world, I’m not buying that it is made of magic Philadelphia-crushing electrical vibes that also somehow cure psychological blindness. (How do you get psychologically blind, too? Your shrink sucks.) Did they make his name so bad that we wouldn’t notice how BULLSHIT his whole thing is? I guess I’m glad his super power isn’t actually Jew-poisoning, just probably Jew-outrunning.
Zyklon could still get the benefit of the doubt since it means Cyclone.
Night & Fog (Nacht und Nebel) on the other hand get their name directly from a Hitler 1941 directive on Concentration Camps… http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=nightfog
I suspect they were trying to add to his evil quotient by giving him a name associated with the Holocaust.
Now see, the name doesn’t bother me that much because the guy is a Nazi and it would make sense that if he was going to pick a name that brought fear and dread to those that heard it, then there is no reason for a Nazi to say “Oh no, I couldn’t use the name Zyklon, because that might offend the Jews”.
I think a nazi written for the times would be more likely to say “Wait. Zyklon hasn’t been taken yet? Oh hell yeah, I’m all over that name!”
I would take points off just for him being such a bad knock off of the flash that even his powers compare him directly to the flash. If I was in charge of DC, I would have an entire cadre of Nazi superhumans floating around in an iceberg just waiting to pop out and cause havoc with their offensive names creating uneasy awkwardness with the modern superheroes.
i would give him a 44%
I must agree with Zenrage, it’s a perfectly understandable Nazi supervillain name, especially for a speedster.
Yeah I don’t know what you’re talking about, that’s the hardest villain name in villain naming history. This dude makes Hatemonger look like a pussy.
The fact that he’s a speedster is kind of retarded. They should go nuts out and give him poison-gas powers. Like the Green Ghost except he’s a nazi and breathing him kills you. I’d pay like, fifty dollars to see the Justice Society beat the tar out of someone that evil.
Actually I kinda get why he’s a speedster. Zyklon-B was a quick way to kill lots of people.. and so is the supervillain Zyklon.
Ba-dum-bum tish
I think he should just have an additional poison gas power that Zyklon is also not immune to and so he has to run fast when he uses it to keep himself from succumbing to it as well. That and he desperately needs a new costume. The Nazis prided themselves on uniformity. Having just a garish costumed character just makes no sense.
What’s wrong with you? Zyklon is an awesome Nazi supervillain name. Hard and harsh without sounding like a parody. One of DC’s better ones, certainly.
They should just leave this version as the speedster, and the backup Zyklon (”Zykon B”) can have the poison gas powers.
I don’t think this is a big deal – if anything, I’m curious as to why one would give the name “Zyklon” to a poison gas. Seems to fit a super much better.
FWIW, Roy Thomas gave a lot of characters “anachronistic” names that would take on some additional meaning sometime after 1942 – kind of a running bit. Other characters were a (not at all suicidal) flying Japanese guy who went by “Kamikaze,” and an American “magnetism” villain by the name of “Nuclear” – nothing to do with atomic energy as such, but attraction/repulsion, etc.
@Matthew: Nice one *thumbs up*
I credit American public schools that most of my peer group and this brave new generation have never heard of Zyklon-B. I’m very serious.
“What did the Nazis use to poison gas the concentration camp prisoners?”
“Gas!”
“…”
A short history of Zyklon can be found in this 2002 article that BBC Business put together when Siemens, which sold Zyklon-brand vacuum cleaners, attempted to trademark the name “Zyklon” for a wide range of home appliances including gas ovens:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2233890.stm
But, yeah, my first reaction as I scrolled down and saw the name was also “What the hell?”
As a Jew, I should be offended.
But I can’t seem to stop laughing.
Why doesn’t he have gas powers? Because Marvel did it first!
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/zyklon.htm
I’m amazed and saddened no one else posted this. Goodbye social life!
Also Jewish, and also not that offended by the name… I kind of admire the cleverness of the Cyclone/Nazi-poison-gas double meaning.
@Matthew: LOL
Back-up Zyklon B, that is wrong. Extra funny, but man, wrong!
FWIW, Roy Thomas gave a lot of characters “anachronistic” names that would take on some additional meaning sometime after 1942 – kind of a running bit. Other characters were a (not at all suicidal) flying Japanese guy who went by “Kamikaze,” and an American “magnetism” villain by the name of “Nuclear” – nothing to do with atomic energy as such, but attraction/repulsion, etc.
Thomas didn’t invent Nuclear; Nuclear was from some Wonder Woman story. I think.
Note that Roy Thomas went on to create another supervillain named Zyklon at Marvel.
Really, when you have to name new Nazi badguys, it’s a pretty obvious one. Really, the first place you go to is codenames for directives and poison gas. It’s not quite as bad as, say “Auschwitz Overlord” or something.
I would totally name a Nazi villain Zyklon, and give him poison gas powers. I would have him committing horrible crimes in an effort to restore the third reich. Then the heroes would track him down and give him such an epic beating that his great grandparents would feel it. Then they would heal him and restore him to full health just so they could beat 9 kinds of crap out of him again.
Man, I’m just impressed they managed to name a Nazi speedster anything besides ‘Blitz’.
@ Josh R
I would have gone a different route entirely. I would have him committing crimes against the Jewish and capitalist icons while wearing some really offensive t-shirt like “Zyklon Kills Jews Dead” or a Swastika with a smiley face in it. Then I would have him use that money to fund an ongoing propaganda and recruitment drive: tossing out fliers to kids at school, talking to people in welfare lines, even having the chutzpah to run up to superheros and try to get them to join his “noble crusade” by referring to them as the new master race. Tell me Luthor wouldn’t cream his pants at the thought of a Nazi running up to Superman and publicly announcing and honoring him as a socialist and a true member of a master race.
He’s always got a smile on his face because he always thinks he’s working towards a better world and the “rest of the world will see things his way sooner or later.”
Wait, what’s the problem here again? Under a Nazi context, this is a GREAT name for a supervillain.
Yeh, not the best choice there, but not terrible… especially compared to their original idea for a Nazi supervillain which would be called Jew Slayer.
Thomas didn’t invent Nuclear; Nuclear was from some Wonder Woman story. I think.
Hey, you’re right!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_(comics)
I just read that issue of All-Star Squadron, and didn’t realize the character had existed before. In the sort of thing only Roy Thomas would know about or use, apparently his first appearance in 1950 referred to an unchronicled early adventure, which turned out to be All-Star Squadron #16.
This reminds me of Invaders Classic Vol. 2, where the Invaders briefly stop in Warsaw and it’s revealed their time there inspired the uprising.
Whoaaaaaa…..
Trivia: Zyklon B is a pestacide that the U.S used in the 1920’s to disinfect the freight trains and clothes of Mexican immigrants entering the US. fun!
In Germany however it was initially used as a delousing agent in the camps before it was used in the gas chambers.
There’s also 2 Norwegien metal bands, Zyklon and Zyklon B. *lol*
And yes it just means Cyclone.
Er, people, there’s a Marvel character named “Holocaust.” Just be glad that Zyklon isn’t as necessarily offensive and specific as, say, “Final Solution” or “Pogrom.”
I mean should Tokyo people get mad at a villain named “Sarin”? An evil poison gas is an evil poison gas.
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