The Essential Mr. Bones, Part 1

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

In several parts I will be posting the original appearances of Mr. Bones from the Infinity, Inc. title.

This is from Infinity, Inc. #16-18. It's written by Roy and Dann Thomas, and illustrated by Todd McFarlane.


Hector Hall and Lyta Trevor are having their engagement party with the other Infinitors (since this story is Pre-Crisis, Lyta is still the daughter of  the Golden Age Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor).

Lyta receives an engagement present from her mother.

Lyta explains that kangas are native to Paradise Island.

Later, Lyta and Hector get into an argument, and Hector storms off. Lyta returns to their home with the kangas, where she hears a sound.












Lyta tries calling the police, but all the phone lines are busy.




Later, Hector returns home to apologize when he sees that the house is trashed. Obsidian, who had arrived a moment before, shows him a photo he found taped on the door; it's a picture of Bones holding an unconscious Lyta by her hair.

On the back of the photo is the message
Don't call the  fuzz--
Just cool your feet--
Don't tell a soul--
Or she's dead meat!

The message is signed "Mr. Bones-- Head Honcho of Helix!"



A chained Lyta wakes up on a couch.






During the game, Arak accuses Tao of cheating and the two get in a fight. Penny breaks it up.






Hector is getting Obsidian to help him weld a new costume when he gets a message from Bones telling him to come alone and to bring a hundred grand with him if he wants to see Lyta again. Hector doesn't trust Obsidian not to follow him, so he knocks him out and leaves. Afterwards, Obsidian wakes up and contacts the other members of Infinity, Inc. for help.

Hector tries rescuing Lyta and gets captured.




Baby Boom and Kritter are causing chaos at a deli.
















Obsidian sees Arak causing trouble and follows him back to Helix's hideout, where he helps rescue Hector and Lyta. After the three battle Arak and Tao Jones, the two members of Helix flee.

Meanwhile, the other Infinitors are battling the remaining members of Helix.





Jade would quickly recover from the cyandide poisoning in the next issue.

And this is a pin-up by Todd MacFarlane that was at the end of #18.


Next time: Mister Bones takes on a Mexican shark-man!

Comments

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

I SO miss this book Infinity Inc. was great. Poor Fury, if only you knew what a cruel future DC had planed for you.

[freddie_mac.insanejournal.com]

Motto. For someone who doesn't pay too much attention to the technical details of comics, I was (and remain) very impressed with the page layouts of this series. I'm trying to think of how many Infinitors/Helix/etc members have crossed into the regular DC books, and this is what I've got: Jade, Obsidian, Fury, Hector, Mr. Bones ... for some reason I think we saw Norda/Northwind recently, but I'm not sure. Any others (not counting PG and Huntress)?

[mugiwara.insanejournal.com]

Skeletons are great. Far, far better than monkeys and zombies.

Also: sigh... Jade... I'd kill half of the Justice League to have her back.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I remember these guys, I remember wincing, and at the same being sort of impressed, by names like Tao Jones and Penny Dreadful.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

I'm sort of embarrassed. I've seen that name in print a dozen times, but only now did it occur to me that it's a pun.

[strannik01.insanejournal.com]

I like how Mr. Bones originally had a costume that seems clearly inspired by Black Terror.

Roy Thomas is such as Golden Age fanboy :)

When McFarlane was Good!

[werehawk.insanejournal.com]

I loved so many of these characters but especially Jade and Mr. Bones. Mr. Bones always reminded me of those fish with see-thru skin.

What I hope you can do is follow up your Infinity Inc Bones posts with all of Bones appearances (mostly JSA) since then (up to the recent Manhunter series) . I have a bunch but know that there are others.

I think most of em are listed here: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Director_Bones_(New_Earth)/Appearances

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

When it turned out he was black I thought it was very cleverly done.

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

what ish was that?

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

It's been too long. It was after he got the bionic leg tho',if that helps.

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I dunno, he's unknowingly revealed to be black by the black female doctor who is also blind? Seemed a little heavy handed, though I did like Beth's calm comment when told he's black "A goodly proportion of the world is"

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

That was the second Doctor Midnight.

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Indeed she was, I just wasn't sure it was germane. And technically she was the first Dr Midnight, the previous one was Dr Mid-Nite. :)

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[citygod.insanejournal.com]

Not sure that this is better than his Spiderman era but I hadn't realised that he was so influenced by Marshall Rogers. I recognise some of the lifts - from Madame Xanadu, Dr. Strange...

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[werehawk.insanejournal.com]

Funny, I didn't notice but I really liked Rogers art in the Calculator backups in Detective Comics back then.

Re: When McFarlane was Good!

[kingrockwell]

If this is McFarlane being good, well, I don't know what I can say for him.

[tacobob.insanejournal.com]

Wow. Never remember Helix as being so lame. Besides the rather unlame Mister Bones, are any of those guys still around? And why does that dog look like John Byrne?

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

are any of those guys still around?

Penny Dreadful, Baby Boom, and Tao Jones were three of the female supervillains Circe recruited when she transformed the male superheroes into animals and took over New York City in Jimenez's WW run, though I think they only appeared in a couple of panels.

I don't think Kritter or Arak made any more appearances after Infinity, Inc.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Though you'll notice you never see him and Gnort in the same room at the same time.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

I realize she's supposed to be a play on the disgustingly cute little girl, but wow, Baby Boom's head and face are creepy.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

Memo to DC: you guys need more kangas.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Damn right!

[kingrockwell]

Wow, not digging the art. Between the cluttered and unintuitive layouts (the fight between Bones and Fury especially; i'm supposed to read those panels in what order now?) and the way all of the faces are drawn either slack-jawed or constipated, count me out!

[philippos42.insanejournal.com]

Cyanide doesn't work that way.

Also, DeZuniga's really carrying McFarlane here. The finishes are really not Todd's work. Like all the faces in the first issue, not a McFarlane among them.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

I just realized. Mr Bones is black. This means his rhymes are early rap.

[freeman333.insanejournal.com]

I own a few issues of Infinity Inc. from this era; not a terrible comic, but by God could it be bizarre, and McFarlane's early experimentation with layout only made it weirder. Filling up the panel borders with objects unrelated to the story, having action that doesn't flow according to the typical left-right up-down pattern, speed lines that actually obscure major parts of the characters (check out that panel where Fury destroys Silver Scarab's suit--it looks like she's cut right through Bones' body), panel frames that distract from the action within...

Plus, Mr. Bones is an odd character to begin with (I admit, other than the invisible skin & organs, cyanide touch, and--eventually--robot leg, I never knew he had super-strength or speed or other powers) and the inclusion of his constant rhyming just pushes him way, way into absurd territory. Really, all of Helix is kind of nuts, with Kritter and Baby Boom being the primary culprits.

Weird. As. Hell.

But hey, Lyta Hall! When you get done beating the crap out of these D-List villains, would you mind giving birth to one of the fundamental concepts underlying the universe? Thanks.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Awww, Kangas! Cute li'l Kangas. I like how it's confirmed here that Kangas are a different species from from Kangaroos - the, uh, name's just a coincidence. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Mr. Bones is an... interesting character. I mean, a chainsmoking skeleton man in a modified Black Terror outfit with a prediliction for bad rhymes can be anything ELSE, y'know? (Although if they were to make any one of Helix a smoker, I personally think it should've been Tao Jones. It would have fit with that latter-day Dragon Lady theme she's got goin' on.)