For the better part of a century, DC has been the birthplace of some (for better or for worse) memorable superheroes. Countless costumed characters have graced the pages of the publisher’s comics — and it looks like one of the most bizarre ones, originally created by Jack Kirby, has been given a major reinvention. Spoilers for Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #4 from Joanne Starer, Natacha Bustos, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher below! Only look if you want to know!
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The issue explores the increasingly-strained friendship of Beatriz da Costa / Fire and Tora Olafsdotter / Ice, as their exploits in Smallville have grown increasingly chaotic. In an attempt to bury the hatchet between the two women, Martha Kent invites them to Smallville’s recurring drag brunch, which features a number of drag queens dressed up as DC heroes. Emceeing the event is a queen dressed in a purple-and-green costume who introduces herself as Goody Rickles.
Who Is DC’s Goody Rickles?
Created by Kirby in 1971’s Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #141, Goody Rickels is introduced as a doppelganger of sorts to real-life comedian Don Rickles. Although technically not a clone or relative of Rickles, Goody bears a lot of distinct similarities to the legendary insult comic. Across the issue, he gets pranked into dressing up as a superhero and fighting Apokoliptian armies alongside Jimmy Olsen and The Guardian.
While Fire & Ice‘s version of Goody Rickles certainly isn’t formed under the same specifics, the fact that she uses that name will certainly delight — and maybe even baffle — diehard Kirby fans.
What Is Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville About?
In Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, Superman sent the former Justice Leaguers packing for Smallville to lie low following their extremely public and utterly disastrous mission in Baltimore, and in doing so doomed them to a fate worse than death: irrelevance. Ice finds herself drawn to the quiet life and dreams of planting roots. But Fire…well, Fire will do just about anything to get the hell outta dodge and back on the Super Hero circuit—including challenging the DC Universe’s biggest villains to a knock-down, drag-out, live-streamed brawl in the streets of Smallville!
“My HOPE, if I’ve done my job right, is that they’ll be surprised by how much it feels like the old Justice League International books while still being new and accessible,” Starer told ComicBook.com in a recent exclusive interview. “I’ve tried extremely hard to put all my love and passion for the Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire series into this, to give it the heart and comedy that those stories had. But you can absolutely pick this up if you don’t know anything about Fire and Ice. It’s pretty simple: one has fire powers, and one has ice powers! They’re best friends, and now they’re in Smallville, starting their lives over!”
What do you think of DC bringing back Goody Rickels? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
