Tawmis

TAWMIS

Real Name: Tawmis Logue
Aliases: TomCat, Tymber, Peter the Ranger, Tom Da Bomb (No One Ever Called Me That, But I Figure If I Put It Here, Maybe I Can Get It To Take Off)
Identity: Secret… Unless you’re reading this, then you know!
Occupation: Dreaming of being a writer
Group Affiliation: Varies, depending on the Comic Book writing and art for that month!
First Appearance: King Sized Baby Annual #1 (1970)
History: Tawmis was introduced into the world of comic books back in the 4th Grade (and trust me, that was, unfortunately a very, very long time ago) when his best friend introduced him to Uncanny X-Men #121 and Avengers #159. Both of these titles, were ironically the “second” appearance of the “villains” in these books.

Uncanny X-Men #121 gives the first full appearance of Alpha Flight (they officially make their first “shadowed” appearance in Uncanny X-Men #120 – except for Vindicator, who made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #109). What was so compelling about Uncanny X-Men, was not only this team of young mutants, with fantastic powers; but their adversaries in this issue of Uncanny X-Men showed off a very dynamic and interesting set of “villains” (as far as I could tell, when I was first reading the issue, they came across as villains – but they’re technically contracted by the Canadian Government to recover Wolverine, which is made clear in the story – but in the 4th grade, I just knew this team was trying to kidnap these good guy’s team mate!)

Alpha Flight consisted of Aurora, her twin brother, Northstar, who were both speedsters, capable of flight; Shaman, what I thought was a Native American Indian at the time (turns out to be a member of Canada’s First Nations, specifically the Tsuu T’ina, and is from Calgary, Alberta), who has a magical medicine bag, where he can call upon spirits to do various things (like pull out these totems that come to life, control the elements, etc.); then there’s Vindicator, who is a human inside a very cool Canadian flag wearing suit that gives him flight, energy blasts, among other powers; then there’s the towering Sasquatch, who has super human strength, and finally there’s Snowbird, a demigoddess, who can take the form of any Canadian or Arctic animal. Perhaps because of this, Alpha Flight became one of my favorite things to come out of Marvel Comics, and I was thrilled when they eventually landed their own series.

Then there was Avengers #159, which has a similar impact on me. This was the second appearance of Graviton (who I frequently mistakenly call Gravitron still to this day), with his first appearance being in Avengers #158. The Avengers, as a team, was a lot like Alpha Flight. They had a wide variety of characters, and so much diversity in costumes and colors, that they were eye candy to my starving, creative eyes in the 4th grade. I remember reading this issue, where Graviton had literally lifted this massive piece of land into the sky, that included a large portion of the city, with his magnificent power; but not only that, he had these “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” pinned to the wall! That panel where he has them all held, and still has the city floating, is much like the panel that shows all of Alpha Flight standing there – it was amazing.

I remember reading this issue, and immediately being drawn to Thor, Vision, Captain America, and Yellowjacket. These were the four primary characters I wanted to know more about. But, as I saved my lunch money, and bought what comics I could find at the local Circle-K (well, back then also The Purple Cow, which was essentially a local version of 7-11), I began really falling in love with all these Avengers characters! Then, I don’t remember how this happened, but my sister, Pauline, got me Avengers #66, which was a pretty iconic issue, as it featured the first appearance of Adamantium. Now, way back then, even when I got this comic (I think in the 5th grade?), Adamantium wasn’t really a big deal yet, because it has not yet been established that this is what Wolverine’s claws and bones were made out of.

Avengers #66 would introduce me to one of my favorite all time villains in Avengers – and perhaps comic book history – none other than the maniacal Ultron. And to be more specific, Ultron-6. Not only was this the first Adamantium version of Ultron, but it was also the only version of Ultron where he didn’t have legs; but rather a thing he floated on. And to show the power of Adamantium, before Ultron-6 is revealed at the end of the issue, not even the power of Thor’s hammer, striking it as hard as he could, left even a dent in the Adamantium. So when Ultron-6 burst onto the scene at the end, I knew the Avengers were in for the fight of their lives. Sadly, it’d be about two years, before I found a bookstore that actually cared back issues of comics, called The Book Rack in San Diego, which sadly is no longer around. (The Book Rack was also where I ended up getting my own copies of The Hobbit, which I read back and forth so many times, that I literally had to take it back together to hold it).

My same sister would also end up getting me Thor #325 and Thor #326, which I remember enjoying; because now I was getting solo stories about Thor, who I was already enjoying in the Avengers book. But this time, I was already full fledged into reading Avengers and Uncanny X-Men, and devouring those titles. It was around this time, early in the 1980’s, that my comic book addiction was confirmed, and exploded. Anything that Marvel was putting out, I was picking up and reading it. Whether I knew the characters or not, I would just pick it. There was DC Comics out there also; but in my young (and admittedly, naive head), all I could think of with DC was that they had Superman, who had one (well, two weaknesses) – some stone from outer space, and magic (which, one in 30,000 characters in DC uses magic), and then on the other side of the spectrum, there was Batman, who at the time, I wasn’t really into. (Don’t get me wrong, when the Saturday morning cartoon for Superfriends came on, you couldn’t tear me away from the TV if you tried). So back then, I never got into DC Comics.

Marvel really got their hooks in me when they introduced The New Mutants and brilliantly tied it in with Uncanny X-Men #167 (which had just finished off, one of the most amazing stories to me – Uncanny X-Men #162 through #166, which dealt with the Brood/Sleazoids). The New Mutants represented what was to be the “next” X-Men, after Professor Xavier assumed the other X-Men dead; but it turns out, it may have all been because of the Brood egg inside him, seeking out more mutants to lay eggs in! The New Mutants gave me young, teenagers, with fantastic powers; characters that were around my age (at the time), with powers, I wish I had. It was literally impossible for me not to love The New Mutants. A few years later, Marvel would introduce another young team of heroes – one that really spoke to me. And that would be… The New Warriors.

The New Warriors took a mess of obscure characters, such as Firestar (who I had recognized from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon), Namorita (from the pages of Sub-Mariner), Speedball (who appeared in a Spider-Man annual), Marvel Boy (who I recalled seeing in the pages of Avengers), Nova (from his own, ill fated 25 issue series, which I happened to have read) and brought in Night Thrasher, who had officially pulled this team together in Thor #411 and Thor #412. I have always been a fan of obscure characters; I think because that yearning writer in me, wants to flesh out these “nobody’s” that people have created for one or two issues, and give them life. The New Warriors not only did that; but this book tackled some pretty serious issues for being a “comic book” and put these characters in very ambiguous, gray, areas where sometimes, there was no “right or wrong” answer, only “this is what I think works best in this instance.” Yes, the New Warriors had their villains of the month; but more often than not, even then, there was a moral entanglement for the characters to strive through. I remember “before the days of the Internet” popularity (most of you can’t even conceive such a notion where we used phones that dialed into a service provider and gave us 9600baud speed; or 14.4 or if we were lucky, 56k speed!). I had created a webpage for The New Warriors, way back then because there wasn’t one (and the Internet was just beginning to cobble together personal websites of people’s interest). So I prided myself on being the “first” New Warriors website out there. My wife, eventually bought me the domain NewWarriors.com and the site eventually went through several changes.

Thunderbolts was another book that would come out, and do exactly what The New Warriors did. Thunderbolts took a bunch of well known and some not so well known villains (Goliath, Baron Zemo, Beetle, Moonstone, Screaming Mimi, and Fixer) and had them pose as heroes, when the events of Heroes Reborn took the heroes away (seemingly killed, after the fight with Onslaught), and they posed as new heroes calling themselves Atlas, Citizen V, Mach I, Meteorite, Songbird, and Techno. The idea is that they would take advantage of people, who needed heroes, and contract with the government to get data… The problem developed that some of them actually enjoyed posing as heroes, and wanted to give up the villainous life permanently. This was such a great way to develop so many of these characters, in ways we would normally not see.

These are just some of the books that I enjoyed; if you saw my collection, you’d understand why I couldn’t go over every – or even a fraction of the books I have historically enjoyed. But if you listen to the podcast, I am sure you will get even more insight to me, my collection, and the things I enjoy.

As if you want to know more about me, right?

Eyes: Brown
Hair: Bald, but it used to be Dark Brown (with way too many streaks of gray in my beard)

Powers: Armed with Wit and Sarcasm, and the ability to ramble about comics (obviously, right?) Tawmis has the ability to be completely inappropriate and yet somehow not come across as overly offensive.

Accessories: Canine by the name of Odin, better known to the hero community as Iron Dog.