Hmm... It Really Is No Fun Being 66... Or En Route To 66... On Route 66... (No Getting Kicks There - Unless It's On Your A$$!)

Several examples are out there that seem to be ample evidence enough pointing to the fact that the whole blamed universe is against you the moment you turn 66...

Just check out this list of characters created in 1941... (The fact that the year ended very badly - in that certain pearly harbor specifically - seems to have jinxed anybody born that year... hmm?)


Entries in the category "Characters introduced in 1941"
(according to and courtesy of Wikipedia!)


A

* American Crusader - dead (like America itself!)
* Archie Andrews (comics) - commercially dead (i.o.w. oversaturation!)
* Aquaman - AWOL and apparently DEAD after a stabbing incident...

B

* Black Marvel - wasn't even black...! Also dead...
* Blackhawk (comics) - dead
* Blazing Skull - blatantly overshadowed by that Ghost Rider clone of his... And looks dead to me...

* Bucky - died in the war (and, unlike Robin Jason Todd, did not return - not as a bad guy, not in any capacity whatsoever. Oh, wait a minute! Marvel saw the OTHER Toddster's return and, feeling a huge pang of jealousy, DID do the unthinkable: bringing back Bucky as, of all things imagineable -and not plausible one iota- a RUSSIAN KILLER oftentimes found to be cryogenically frozen, when he is not "needed," see? Tis verily a fate worse than death; to be "resurrected" by an incompetent bunch of scribes! But I am digressing...)


C

* Captain America - shot dead quite recently, after years of services rendered... Isn't that telling about America overall as well...? (Plus, his pal Bucky just returned -though in completely unrecognizable fashion- and what do they do to him, for the reunion? Thye off him. His turn to put in some "limbo time" - I guess!)

* Captain Marvel Jr. - promoted to the cursed title of "Sr."...

* Captain Nazi - mercifully dead - replaced by Captain Neo-Nazi!
* Cecil Turtle - who?
* Betty Cooper - commercially dead, unless they do as many fans appear to want to see (if one believes some pieces of *fan fic* out there, or rather here, on the web) and give her the L-Word make-over; along with Cherry, Veronica and the rest...)

D

* Pat Dugan - who?

F

* Father Time (Marvel Comics) - don't ask...
* Fin (comics) - dead


G

* Green Arrow - recently stabbed in the throat with one of his very own arrows, by his own bride, during their honeymoon (after his eyes went blank, some force took over his body and he was trying to kill her; love never triumphs in the DCU!) and so he is now presumed dead also...


H

* Roy Harper (comics) - was made into a druggie/junkie at first; of course, being stuck with the name "Speedy" didn't help matters much... then he became affixed with a worse name still, in "Arsenal" (...) which didn't help his popularity at all either... Then he could have died a hundred times over, but somehow survived the numerous waves of death sweeping through the DCU with frightening regularity (only to suffer more, surely) - which is when his eternal-living ancestor (named Vandal Savage - yikes) reacquainted himself with him and Roy's daughter only to appropriate himself their organs in order to prolong his eternal life some more...! After somehow surviving that, he became "Red Arrow" - the uninspired insipid successor of his mentor, Green Arrow! Sheesh... Futuristic tales predict his demise (and daughter dearest taking up the mantle as "Red Hood" - how original of her not to use "Little" or "Riding" with that, eh?) so Roy is definitely living on borrowed time - a very crummy existence, to boot!

* Sandy Hawkins - who?
* Hippolyta (comics) - dead... it appears...
* Human Bomb - dead and replaced by a clone (...)

J

* The Jester (Quality Comics) - dead or in limbo; same thing
* Jughead Jones - commercially dead

K

* Charles Foster Kane - died crying over some "rosebud"...

M

* Doctor Mid-Nite - dead and replaced by a clone (truly a DC tradition!)
* Miss America (DC Comics) - dead
* Miss Victory - retired after a lacklustre career...
(sorry FemForce fans...!)

* Mist (comics) - dead
* Mouthpiece (comics) - dead - they shut his yap...

P

* Sylvester Pemberton - who?
* Penguin (comics) - in limbo, as good as dead...
* Phantom Lady - dead and replaced by a clone... (see?)
* Plastic Man - plastic is never truly alive either... (it is, quite on the contrary, VERY disposable INDEED)

R

* Rockman (comics) - presumed dead for the longest time; turns out he was in suspended animation (duh) and will be returning to present-time chaotic world shortly... (The real deal here: when a so-called 'house of ideas' is all out of ideas, they scavenge their old stuff, in a timely fashion - and so, this guy will be among 'The Twelve', a reunion of 12 throwaway characters from days gone by that serves no true purpose at all...other than retaining rights to the character and its name!)



S

* Sargon the Sorcerer - dead
* Scarecrow (comics) - looks dead to me...
* Shining Knight - presumed dead
* Speedy (comics) - see Roy Harper's torment, above...
* Spirit of '76 (comics) - dead
* Star-Spangled Kid - very dead
* Starman (Ted Knight) - dead

T

* Turtle (comics) - mercifully dead
(and, if I may say so, between Cecil and him, I guess 1941 was a very sloooooow year, eh? They sure reacted slowly in the U.S. to events in Europe...)


V

* Vigilante (comics) - dead
* Baroness Paula Von Gunther - dead

W

* Wildfire (Golden Age) - dead

* Witness (comics) - presumed dead for the longest time; turns out he was in suspended animation (duh) and will be returning to present-time chaotic world shortly... (The real deal here: when a so-called 'house of ideas' is all out of ideas, they scavenge their old stuff, in a timely fashion - and so, this guy will be among 'The Twelve', a reunion of 12 throwaway characters from days gone by that serves no true purpose at all... other than retaining rights to the character and its name!)

* Wonder Woman - died once, reverting to clay - got better; but for how long...?



If one may turn to numerology for a second too;
I would be remiss if I didn't add to this sorry mix one very much flesh-and-blood bit of evidence and point out that *you don't have to be 66* - numbers can combine to add up to sixty-six and seal your doom...!
Case in point: the 33rd murder in the sleazy city of Montreal this year was a 33 year-old woman apparently beaten to death by a very misogynystic man (the prime suspect is the ex-boyfriend, ten years his victim's senior)

'Nuff said.