THE PLAIN DEALER SUNDAY, MAY 19, 1996 Marvel gang chooses up new sides Look for an unprecedented return of old characters as Marvel Comics writers scramble to fill the gap left this summer when the evil Onslaught removes a large number of heroes and vilON COMICS lains to a separate universe. Marvel editors asked for fresh ideas on a massive list of characters that would be available once the Mike Avengers, the Sangiacomo Fantastic Four, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, a version of the Hulk and an undetermined number of support characters and villains disappear. Their new adventures take place. in another universe and will be written by Image Comics' Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee. Here are the more interesting notions: The Guardians of the Galaxy will somehow be thrown back in time from the future to the present.
The following heroes from Marvel's ill-fated "New Universe" experiment of the mid1980s will come over to Marvel Earth: The All-American, Justice (the second character with that name) Nightmask, Psi-Hawk, Pit Bull, Witness and Chrome. Why not bring back the two most interesting titles of the New Universe: Starbrand and the team, Displaced Paranormals (DP) The ex-Avengers and assorted hangers-on who are left behind include another version of the Hulk, Quicksilver, Hercules, Black Widow, Starfox, War Machine, Black Knight (back from loan to Malibu Comics), Photon (the female Captain Marvel), Masque and the return of the deceased Wonder Man, who is now an energy being. These are tough times; no one can afford to stay dead. Except for the Hulk and Quicksilver, that's a pretty lame bunch of characters. Ant-Man and Lyja (the shapeshifting Skrull) will not be joining the Fantastic Four in the trip to Image-land and might pop up anywhere.
Also mentioned as being up for grabs are the members of teams that lost their own books like Alpha Flight, the Squadron Supreme, Force Works, New Warriors and Silver Sable's Wild Pack. Look for the return of Howard the Duck in a team-up with Spider-Man, written by Howard's creator, Steve Gerber who was the only one to ever do Howard right. Classics revisited Acclaim Comics has licensed the entire Classics Illustrated properties and will be publishing several kinds of books. Classics Illustrated began in 1942 and published more than 150 illustrated versions of classic literature from William Shake- DETECTIVE COMICS' a DC COMICS Robin gets locked up with the bad guys by a vigilante who thinks criminals are treated too kindly in prison, so he takes over the job himself. speare, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens.
There were numerous versions of the stories adapted and illustrated through the years, as recently as the early 1990s. Not big on details, Acclaim announced it will take -the existing illustrated comics and add explanatory text to make the book more of a study guide. Acclaim is considering downloading the original comics and distributing them through a computer system. Hot on the stands DETECTIVE COMICS Nos. 697-700 (DC, Batman, Robin and Nightwing (the former Robin) go after a vigilante who captures murderers and imprisons them out of a warped sense of justice.
Graham Nolan and Scott Hanna draw the prison so perfectly you can almost smell the mold and hear the rats. Chuck Dixon's script is a page-turner. DC is not talking about the plans for the 700th issue of Detective Comics out in two months, making it the second longest continuously published title in history behind Action Comics featuring Superman. But it should be a major event. Avoid at All Costs SILVER SURFER No.
116 ($1.95, Marvel). Let me see if I got this right. The Surfer is killed, chopped up into parts and sold to a bunch of aliens but he is not really dead. So what does it take to kill him? Now the aliens somehow absorb his powers and oh come on. This is the most stupid idea in years.
If this is an example of George Perez's writing skill, he had better stick to art. Send questions or comments to On Comics, Mike Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer, 1801 Superior Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Or e- mail to: Homeless friend teaches lesson about true riches KIND FROM 1-F It was because of my father that I first reached out to Helen. But it was because of Helen that I keep coming back. The truth is that I get more from Helen than I give.
She greets me with joy, embraces me with love, and never judges my gift or my intentions. Last night I could have greeted Helen and never stopped to give her money. She would have understood. But instead I dipped my head and hurried by. Today I realize that it is not because I didn't have time to pull out money.
I didn't greet Helen because I didn't have the ability to accept her embrace. After a long, hard day, I wasn't feeling very lovable. But Helen would have given to me anyway. Most people who see us together assume that I am wealthier than Helen. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Hanson Bourke is the author of "Turn. Toward the Wind" and publisher of Religion News Service. Test verifies age of DNA specimens In recent years, scientists have reported recovering intact pieces of ancient DNA from dinosaur bones, the buried leaves of extinct plants and amber-encased insects. Because the molecules that carry genetic instructions deteriorate with time and because some of the DNA purportedly comes from specimens as much as 135 million years old such claims have highlighted the need for a fast, simple test to tell whether these bits of genes really belonged to the ancient organisms or represent more modern contamination by bacteria or humans, for example. Researchers at the University of Munich and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography reported in the journal Science that they have devised such a test.
It takes advantage of the fact that the building blocks of proteins the EARTHWEEK: A DIARY OF THE PLANET Twister Tragedy death Officials Bangladesh toll in from feared a that northern vicious the twister which struck the region could top 1,000. Hundreds more, ously injured by wooden and metal debris that was hurled like deadly missiles during the storm's 20- minute fury, fought for their lives in overcrowded hospitals. Survivors of the devastating storm say the tornado created a huge red glow as high winds tore roofs off buildings in six villages and sent people and animals flying through the sky. A tornado roaring across northwestern Illinois tore the roof off a containment building of a nuclear power plant, and damaged storage areas for low-level nuclear waste. The reactor at the Commonwealth Edison power plant in Cordova was shut down as a precaution, but company officials said that the reactor itself was undamaged, and there was no danger of a radiation leak.
Caribbean Plume Another in a series of eruptions from the Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat sent a plume of ash and rock soaring more than 3,000 feet above the tiny Caribbean island. Residents described this latest eruption as different. "When the biggest cloud came over us, the sky went completely dark and it was very noisy," said Olveston resident, Judith Dawkins. The air smelled like gunpowder, which Dawkins said had not happened before. More than 4,000 residents in the southern half of the island have been living in safe areas to the north since April 3.
Tropical Storms Typhoon Bart formed over the warming tropical waters to the east of the Philippines, then veered northwestward just before bringing its high winds and rains to Luzon. Earthquakes A moderate magnitude 4.3 tremor shook the eastern Algerian region of el Tarif, but caused no damage or injuries. Earth movements were also felt in Puerto Rico, Argentina-Chile border region, Indonesia's Irian Jaya region, Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, -central Alaska and Southern California. Water Worries For the week ending May 17, 1996 Chronicle Features People in parts of India who are now drinking groundwater which has been undisturbed for thousands of years are causing the water table to fall at an alarming rate. Scientists of the Central Ground Water Board in New Delhi told the Supreme Court that the country's water table was lowered by more than 25 feet between.
1983 and 1995. Pumping for residential use, particularly in Delhi and surrounding areas, was said to be the main cause. Huge swarms of red locusts swept through the Zimbabwe capital, Harare. Such an invasion has not been seen in the city for decades, according to a report in The Daily Herald. The Crop Protection Unit had earlier warned farmers that the insects were on their way from Mozambique, advising that the winter wheat crop was the most threatened.
Mongolian Dilemma Bitterly cold snowstorms, artificially-induced by cloud-seeding to put out raging across the steppes killed two shepherd at least 5,000 head of catmelting snow later flooded areas of pastures, drowning the animals. While some of were extinguished by the freeze and snow, several continue to blacken large the country, including forests near the capital, Ulan Bator. The severity of the fires during the last month has been blamed on an almost snowless winter that left forests and grasslands tinder-dry. Swan Rescue By Steve Newman http://www.slip.net/~earthenv/ 4.7 3.3 The worst snowstorm to strike China's northwestern Xinjiang region in half a century killed 469 swans, and only the efforts of local residents to cover the birds with quilts prevented a higher toll, the Xinhua new agency reported. Local wildlife organizations launched a campaign to prevent further casualties by providing the swans with food and blankets.
Many of the birds were said to be underweight, and lack of eggs among females means that fewer birds will be born this June, according to Gu Zhengqin, head of a local. animal protection organization. Additional Sources: U.S. Climate Analysis Center, U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.
World War I brings many changes: patriotic excitement, racial hostility A lot of things ended and a lot of things began anew in Cleveland when America was swept into World War I in 1917. CLEVELAND: A LOOK BACK Bob Rich The city's last great progressive mayor, Newton Baker, was now secretary of war under President Woodrow Wilson, and the spirit of idealism of the Tom Johnson mayoral days would sputter and almost die out under his successors. But the nation and city were still caught up in the patriotic excitement as the war began. There were parades, rallies, war-bond drives, rationing programs, war gardens. Cleveland's young men volunteered to go "Over There" and finish off the Kaiser's legions.
Forty-one thousand would leave from the lakefront Union Depot to serve in the war. The war and immigration laws had almost ended large-scale European immigration to the city. But Cleveland's booming war factories needed workers, so recruiting agents were sent to the poverty-stricken rural South. Their efforts were so successful that the mass movement of blacks into Northern cities and Cleveland became known as the Great Migration. What had been a wellintegrated black population of 8,500 in the city in 1910 grew to almost 35,000 by 1920, and 72,000 a decade later.
"There is no mistaking what is going on, it is a regular Exodus," said the Cleveland Advocate, a black newspaper, in 1917. It certainly was an exodus, but for black families the only thing that came free in the Promised Land was racial hostility. Now, what had been considered the most liberal city in the Midwest in terms of race relations going to experience conflict and friction in employment and education; discrimination against blacks in restaurants, theaters, hospitals, trains, department stores and public schools became common. But rural Southern blacks, with no education or urban experience, continued to pour into the East Side. Historian Carol Poh Miller reports that boarding and rooming houses were packed.
Singlefamily, eight-room houses were divided into "suites" with five or six families crowded in, using one bathroom. Each unit rented, for what the whole house had rented for before. Politicians in both parties sometimes played very dangerous games with the rising white hostility and fear. Profesor Ken- 5.3 4.3: El Kharga, Egypt South Pole, Antarctica: Locust Invasion huge fires of Mongolia, boys and tle. The large many of the blazes snap blazes areas of PLAIN station at Public Square in 1917 as patriotism was at a 883 PLAIN DEALER FILE, In the Roaring '20s, the intersection of E.
9th St. and Euclid shown here looking east up Euclid, was a hustle and bustle of streetcars, buses, autos and pedestrians. and profit were becoming the national pastime. Playhouse Square and Doan's Corners at Euclid Ave. and E.
105th St. were filled with new theaters. Young people danced the Charleston, and taxi drivers had hot market tips. Middle-class people were using rapid transit lines and autos to flee the old ethnic neighborhoods Warszawa, Dutch Hill, Kuba and the Angle were emptying out in favor of Farfield Heights, Cleveland Heights and Bart 2.8 Mobs of men flocked to a recruiter's point. neth Kusmer tells of the state chairman of the Democratic Party, William Finley, in 1917, claiming that the Ohio GOP was assisting in the "colonization" of thousands of traditionally Republican black migrants for the purpose of increasing the Republican vote a claim that one year later was one of the causes of a notoriously bloody race riot in East St.
Louis, Mo. Two newspapers, the News and the Leader, stirred things up by prejudiced articles and remarks; the movie "Birth of a Nation" played to sell -out crowds. And there was more than racial hostility in the air after the war. Fear of "Red Bolshevism" was sweeping the country and thousands of suspects were jailed. On May 1, 1919, Socialist and trade unionist groups marched on Public Square to celebrate May Day, and to protest the jailing of Socialist leader Eugene Debs.
They carried red flags and were taunted by spectators. A riot broke out, and police and Army troops had to break it up: Two people were killed, 40 injured and 116 arrested. Cleveland's economic boom, though, continued during the "Roaring '20s." Auto and auto parts factories employed thousands of workers, and fat payrolls helped tamp down social unrest. As many as 150 labor unions, mostly AFL, were scattered throughout the city, the largest representing railroad workers. With the war over, Americans loosened up; the purgait of fun 5.4 4.4 8 431 Shaker Heights.
Russian Jews' and Italians were moving further. east. Old, elegant Euclid Aver mansions were being abandoned! as used car lots moved in. Everything was changing. And then, on: a late October day in 1929, everything would change again for ever! Rich is a local history tor whose radio spot, "A Touch of Cleveland History," is heard on.
WCPN This column apt pears each Sunday leading up to Cleveland's bicentennial in July. 1 I DEALER high FROM WIRE REPORTS creatures undergo chemical degradation at known rates after an animal dies. Proteins are chains of amino acids, and each amino acid can exist in two forms left-handed (L) or righthanded (D) which are mirror images of each other. Living organisms contain only L-amino acids, but after death, the acids undergo chemical conversion until there are equal amounts of the and forms. In one amino acid, aspartic acid, this "racemization" occurs at the same rate that DNA degrades.
The new test provided confirmatory, evidence that DNA a Utah scientist claimed to have extracted from an 80-million-yearold dinosaur bone in 1994 must instead have come from more recent contamination..
