Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Aquaman

Arthur was the ruler of Atlantis, an undersea kingdom composed of an off-breed of humanity who had gained the ability to live under the sea through magic.  This society lived in happy seclusion for centuries, wanting nothing to do with their air breathing cousins of the surface world.  Arthur was not only their king but the mightiest of the Atlanteans. He possessed greatly enhanced strength, speed and durability, the capacity to swim at incredible speeds and a telepathic power that enabled him to speak to and, if necessary, control fish, crustaceans and sea-faring mammals.  Furthermore, as king he wielded the 'Trident of Poseidon,' a powerful weapon handed down by the gods.  All this power not withstanding, Arthur was a benevolent king who cared only for the wellbeing of his people and the sea.  

Following a brief skirmish with Lex Luthor, Arthur became even more dedicated to guarding Atlantis’ seclusion from the surface world.  Yet this became increasingly difficult as mankind's advancing technology and polluting ways continued to descend into his realm.  Arthur disabled a nuclear submarine that had traversed into the depths of Atlantis.  When the Justice League came to investigate, Arthur allowed the heroes to rescue the crew but demanded the sub and its weapons remain behind.  Arthur agreed to appear at the United Nations to stipulate the need to respect Atlantis’ sovereign borders. 

Arthur’s ambitious and conniving brother, Orm, had eyes to steal his brother’s throne and utilized this opportunity to usurp him.  First he hired the assassin Deadshot to kill Arthur at his appearance at the United Nations.  When this plot was thwarted by the Justice League, Orm devised a new, much more dangerous plot.  He planned on using the nuclear weapons procured from the downed submarine to orchestrate an attack that would destroy his brother and cause Atlantis to rally behind him as their new king in a war against the surface world.  

This scheme was also foiled thanks to the Justice League.  Arthur battled his brother and Orm perished in the conflict.  Feeling a debt of gratitude toward the League, Arthur agreed to act as a provisional member of the team who would aid them when needed.  

Actors Miguel Ferrer and Scott Rummell each provided the voice for Aquaman, with the undersea hero first appearing in the ninth episode of the third season of Superman: The Animated Series, ‘A Fish Story.’  

hmm.

Garth has had a lot of looks over the years. I think my favorite is the streamlined blue that he wore in the Teen Titans animated series. The current blue iteration is similar enough that I like it to. The red get-up with the black tiger-print stuff was awful (IMO). And his original silver age togs were kind of generic.

what's your favorite?

yes, the Batman and Harley Quinn feature is is DCAU adjacent. But it's Earth Day and I've a soft spot for Swamp Thing so i made an exception :)

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Swamp Thing

Doctor Alec Holland was a brilliant botanist and biochemist who worked on a bio-restorative formula he believed could solve the world hunger. He toiled away on this project in a remote laboratory hidden in the Louisiana swamplands.  

The agents of a competitor broke into his lab and set a bomb.  Holland was caught in the explosion, which both drenched him in the bio-restorative formula as well as set his body ablaze.  He ran into the swamp before he died and the bio-restorative chemicals interacted with the plant life of the swamp.  The flora had been somehow imbued with an imprinting of Holland’s consciousness.  Having gained a sentience, the flora formed into a humanoid form and rose up from the bog as the Swamp Thing, the latest in a long line of Earth elementals charged with protecting the planet’s fragile environment.  

Years later, Poison Ivy and The Floronic Man stole the information the government had accrued on how Alec Holland had been changed into the Swamp Thing.  The pair planned on releasing a giant cloud of bio-restorative spores that would cause all organic life on earth to become floral based hybrids; the world would be repopulated with swamp things whom Poison Ivy and The Floronic Man could control and lord over.  

Fortunately, the villains’ scheme was thwarted by Batman and Nigtwing with the invaluable help of Harley Quinn.  The Swamp Thing itself rose up in the climax of the altercation, but chose to do nothing to affect the outcome.  Instead it was Harley’s pleading to her friend Ivy that turned the tied and enabled the heroes to win out.

Actor John DiMaggio provided the voice for The Swamp Thing.  The character initially appeared in the Justice League episode ‘Comfort and Joy’ but featured more prominently in the animated movie, Batman and Harley Quinn.   

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Curaré

As Mysterious as she is deadly, Curaré had been the top operative of a secret organization known as the Society of Assassins.  This organization was composed of the world’s deadliest killers and hired its services out for exorbitant fees.  Curaré was the most lethal of them all and was reserved for the Society’s most pressing assignments.  Her signature weapon was a scimitar sharpened to a near-subatomic degree.

Gotham City’s District Attorney, Sam Young had been building a case against the international arms dealer, Fyodor Davic, and Davic had hired the Society of Assassins to take him out.  Curaré was dispatched and did not expect the matter to be a difficult task.  She was unaware, however, that Young was married to Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon, the heroine who in the past operated as Batgirl.  

With the aide of Batman (Terry McGinnis), Barbara was able to save Sam's life and avoid Curaré’s attacks.  Young successfully prosecuted Davic and the arms dealer was sentenced to prison.

It was a rare instance in which the Society of Assassins had failed.  The price for failure within the Society was death and Curaré soon found herself hunted by her own colleagues.  And yet Curaré turned the tables on her pursuers, stalking each of them until she had eliminated the entirety of her former organization.  Once she accomplished this, Curaré returned to Gotham to get revenge on Batman.  Although once again Batman prevailed and Curaré was captured and incarcerated.

A woman of very few word, what little dialogue Curaré spoke was voiced by actress Melissa Disney.  The assassin first appeared in the twelfth episode of the first season of Batman Beyond, ‘A Touch of Curaré.’  

some more Supergirl DCAU paper cut-outs

yeah, I recall reading that somewhere. Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Stan Berkowitz all hated Hamilton. Not because of the voice actor. I think the character became too much of a writers' crutch with his scientific acumen allowing for exposition dumps. Like whenever he was in a scene the narrative would have too much telling and not enough showing.

Maybe that's why the writers came to dislike him so much. I think Dini wanted to kill him off in the Darkseid episode... but decided having Dan Turpine die carried more weight. Plus Jack Kirby had just passed away and they used Turpine's death as means of memorializing Kirby's passing.

I'm not certain, but I think Dwayne McDuffie was the one who decided to have Hamilton turn into a villain.

That’s a tough one.  All three are such different women.  The Green Lantern element is really the only commonality.  I could see Jo being very talkative, asking a lot of questions, particularly regarding being an earth-bound superhero.  And Jade being obliging and answering questions but not giving away much in the way of personal details.  And Jessica as quite shy at first, feeling a bit like she doesn’t belong along side two such strong heroines.  Yet then realizing that this is mostly her past traumas creating erroneous assumptions.  I could see Jessica becoming close friends with both Jade and Jo, while Jo and Jade remain a bit suspicious, guarded toward each other.  

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Emil Hamilton

Professor Emil Hamilton had been the director and head scientist at STAR Labs of Metropolis.  On the forefront of scientific discovery and experimentation, Hamilton became found himself as a close alley to Superman in the hero’s early years as the protector of Metropolis.  The pair worked together on numerous occasions.  Hamilton surmised the origins of Kryptonite and why the substance so weakened the Man of Steel.  He additionally built a lead-lined suit that would protect Superman from Kryptonite.

Superman  brought Hamilton the remains of the spacecraft that had originally brought him to earth and Hamilton and his team were able to repair it so that it was space-worthy again.  The scientist additionally helped to fix the Phantom Zone projector.    

Having come to know Superman so well, Hamilton was aware of what a dire threat to the world the hero could be if he ever were to go rogue.  As such Hamilton was quite shaken when Superman was temporarily mind controlled by Darkseid.  On another occasion, a desperate Superman snapped at Hamilton, demanding he provide emergency medical care for his cousin Supergirl.  

These experiences left an indelible mark on Hamilton.  When Amanda Waller approached him with a request that he join Project Cadmus, the professor quickly agreed.  Cadmus was oriented toward creating contingency plans to neutralize those with superhuman powers were they ever to become a threat to national interests.  

As a part of Cadmus, Hamilton worked on the creation of Doomsday, The Ulti-Men and the close of Supergirl known as Galatea.  Hamilton came to regret his decision to work for Cadmus and his lack of trust in his old friend Superman.  Whatever become of the professor following the dissolution of Project Cadmus remains unknown.  

Actors Victor Brandt and Robert Foxworth each provided the voice for Professor Hamilton, with the misguided scientist first appearing in the fifth episode of the first season of Superman: The Animated Series, ‘A Little Piece of Home.’  

interesting!

I think that's a great idea.

That's right that the word 'robot' or more specifically robota, in Czech, means forced labor. Interestingly enough, the robots in Karel Čapek, play "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots) were not mechanical but rather flesh and blood sort of clone-beings who were made in a factory. But they did indeed rebel and the play itself was viewed as an anti-capitalist satire.

With all the things going on with A.I. and the intersection of machine learning and labor issues, this could make for a very interesting story.

Although I'm not sure that's the kind of tale Marvel/Disney would be inclined to produce

Power Girl paper cut-out

Jade is very cool. And green is a favorite color :3

I was not a fan of those old stories involving Jade's biological mother, brother and the two's difficulties with psychosis. It was a product of the time... but the stories kind of sensationalized schizophrenia in an insensitive and poorly-researched fashion.

For this reason I kind of preferred the stories involving Jade that weren't tied to her brother and mother.

I also prefer her not being a Green Lantern... not because I don't think she makes for a good Green Lantern, quite the contrary, but only because there are so many human Green Lanterns and ones who aren't Hal Jordan or John Stewart often get lost in the fold.

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

The Manhunters

Millennia ago, the near-omnipotent Guardians of the Universe created a force of humanoid automatons to enforce justice and order throughout the cosmos.  These androids, known as ‘Manhunters’ frequently struggled with the subtle differences between good, bad, guilt and innocence.  As such, The Manhunters meted out harsh punishment and enforced a stringent and frequently brutal interpretation of justice.

The Guardians ultimately chose to decommission the Manhunters and created in its place the Green Lantern Corps.  Composed of many individuals from a multitude of different planets, peoples and cultures, The Green Lanterns proved much more capable of maintaining peace and enforcing justice in a fair and equitable fashion.  

The Manhunters, meanwhile, were relegated to menial labor and over time their artificial consciousnesses cultivated sentience; an awareness that was coupled with a deeply seated resentment toward the Guardians and envy toward the Green Lanterns.  These android methodically hatched a plan to obtain their revenge on the Guardians and show themselves as superior to the Lantern Corps.  With the aid of the alien pirate known as Kanjar-Ro, The Manhunters framed The Green lantern, John Stewart for the destruction of the planet Adjuras 4.  

While the Guardians attended to the trial of John Stewart, The Manhunters staged a large-scale attack on the Guardian home-world of Oa.  Fortunately, the Justice League had interceded to investigate the claim against one of their own.  They discovered Kanjar-Ro’s deception as well as The Manhunter’s attack on Oa.   With the League’s help, The Green Lanterns were successful in repelling the attack.  The Manhunters were destroyed and John Stewart was exonerated.      

Actor James Remar provided the voice for the Manhunter androids, featuring in the fourth episode of the first season of Justice League, ‘Blackest Night part One.’  

Morning visitor

a whole mess of Green Lantern paper cut outs... long live the corps!

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Talon

Teresa was one of the many young people who were present for the so-called ‘Big Bang’ and was subjected to the mutagenic effects of the mysterious Quantum Vapor.  The vapor changed those exposed to it, bestowing many of them with metahuman powers. These individuals came to be called 'Bang Babies.'

Like many other Bang Babies, Teresa's physical appearance was drastically altered. She took on avian features and gained the ability to fly.  She could additionally emit a debilitating sonic scream.

Her powers not withstanding, Teresa was very upset about how her physique had changed, seeing herself as a freak who could never again be a part of the normal world.  The villainous Ebon took advantage of Teresa’s anger and recruited her into his gang of super powered villains, The Meta-Breed.  Teresa took on the alias of ‘Talon’ and dutifully attended to Ebon’s evil bidding.   This resulted in multiple instances where Talon battled against the heroic Static and his allies.

When Dr. Donald Todd devised a serum that could reverse the effects of the Quantum Vapor, Talon was eager to participate in the test trials and hopefully be transformed back into a human.  The serum proved successful and Teresa lost her powers and resumed her original human appearance.  When Ebon stole Dr. Todd’s serum, hoping to alter it so to amplify his own powers, Teresa assisted Static in determining Ebon’s location.  

Actress Tia Texada voiced Talon with the one-time villainess first appearing in the third episode of the first season of Static Shock, ‘The Breed.’