Ram Drood. As far as I can tell, he's a Haney original character. He's in World's Finest no. 246, and I believe this is his first appearance, but feel free to correct me.
He shows up, looking queenie, and accuses Superman of secretly trapping his deformed twin brother, Kor-El, in a Kryptonite asteroid for past couple of decades. And then the awesome, awesome insults start flying!
Three in one panel! And that's just after Green Arrow called Superman "the lousiest crumb in the universe!" Harsh words, GA. When Superman gets angry, he comes up with some pretty hilarious insults. "Bow-toting clown." "Space Bum." And my favourite:
"You crazy hobo!"
Superman has no time for this bohemian asshole. And the feeling is mutual.
Of course the only one who believes that Superman may be innocent is Batman. He even gives his friend a relaxing neck massage:
Man, eventually they are going to run out of things to call each other, and one of them is going to slip and say "doll face" or something instead of "old comrade" and it is gonna be awk-ward.So, Ram Drood hangs out for the rest of the issue, kinda like that episode of The Simpsons where that teenager named Roy lives with them. No explanation. He's just there, chilling with the Justice League, and making Batman mad enough to use PG language.
Everyone is into the idea of Superman going to rescue his brother from the Kryptonite asteroid except Batman, who vehemently objects:
"Blazes!" Can you imagine if you were hanging out with some people and one of them got mad enough to start shaking their fist in the air like that? It would be weird. Especially if their anger turned the background red.Ok, so it turns out that Batman is right, and Superman does die. Or, at least he appears to die. And Batman is left alone to grieve over his dear friend's body. Well...almost alone.
Why hasn't Batman punched that guy yet? Also...is Batman smirking a little?Oh. Don't worry. Superman and Ram Drood patch things up in the end:
17 comments:
I want to see a picture of Kor-El! Did he exist? Just how deformed was he? Why does Ram Drood look so much like Dr. Sivana?
Ram Drood looks a little like Birdman's nemesis Redcuto, if he dressed in Hawkman's hand-me-downs and a super-gay scarf, that is.
What's "Krytonite"? Is that like Kryptonite, but different? (It's in the one where Superman yells "Yaaaaaggh!", you know, like we all do, sometimes?)
This is exciting. We could be like William S. Baring-Gould when he started figuring out how Sherlock Holmes is related to every other fictional detective. By this time we'll have cooked up an elaborate family tree that links up Sivana, Ram Drood, Reducto, Egg Fu, Booster Gold and Space Cabbie. And then everyone else. Incestuous!
"By this time *next year"
Wow...that Kryptonite typo is amazing. I didn't even notice.
I guess Kryptonite makes Superman mis-pronounce things sometimes.
I can't believe that while the X-men were going through the Dark Phoenix saga, Superman was hanging out insulting space bums.
You know, at first from the title I thought this was going to be another Green Lantern post, but I must admit that Ram Drood, Space Hobo, is almost as good.
And as for Superman and Batman, just get a room already! Sheesh!
I've never really seen a picture of Bob Haney, but I want to believe he looks like Ram Drood. Please say he does.
In my mind, he does. And always will.
He definitely looked like Ram Drood. I'll let you believe that. God rest his awesome soul.
Whaty's Krytonite? Duh, that's the space-mineral that causes Superman to cry like a little girl who just scraped her knee. He is often subjected to it before cover shoots and ad campaigns, like the one for Identity Crisis #1 or that weird Phil Jimenez teaser image with the ruined Statue of Liberty.
Kor-El looked like superman with a hunchback.
Rachelle, just wanted to de-lurk and tell you how much I like your blog. Especially love the title.
I notice you've only covered the first half of this story. The second half features Batman in a brilliant disguise where he puts on a trenchcoat and hat over his costume. If you need it, I've got it. It took me over a decade, but I damn well got it.
Actually, the B-Man wears the trench coat and fedora in the first part of this story as well, at the end. I was very close to posting a panel of that, but got lazy. It's truly amazing. I'm hoping to just do a post someday of Batman wearing costumes over his costume and use it there.
But, yeah, if you have the second part of this story, I'd love to read it. I am very concerned about what will happen to Superman.
And, yes. To back up what Son of Blog-El said,the twin brother does look exactly like Superman with a hunchback.
I remember this story! Weirdly, what drew me to the blog was googling "Ram drood" no kidding!
For those of you dying to know how it turns out, Supes frees Kor-El and sort-of dies from the Kryptonite. Kor-El conquers the Earth, Facist-style, which is why Bats & Company have to go underground.
In the end, we find out that Kor-El was really the Parasite, and Ram takes a bullet for Supes.
And everything goes back to normal.
Hobo! hahaha that's funny, how come Superman is not angry more often, i wonder what other things can he come up in moments of high stress
Oh my god, there's so much helpful info here!
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