Marvel and DC's Wizard of Oz!

I recently ran across this Wizard of Oz comic from 1975...

Since it was published by both Marvel and DC, I couldn't stop myself from redrawing it with a few substitute characters. Click on it to enlarge...

You won't see this on on Covered Blog like some of my other recreations. It's too much of a parody/mash-up for the purpose of that site, if you're curious why.

When I first thought about what characters to use, I was surprised to realize that there are no Lion-based superheroes! And, very few villains.

Using Tin (who's awkwardly out of step, if you didn't notice) from Metal Men was an obvious choice. Using the Batman villain, Scarecrow, was also an obvious choice. I very, very briefly considered using the Marvel hero named Scarecrow. He was created in the 70's and maybe used only three times.

I debated about who to use for the Cowardly Lion. The most obvious choice would be Leo...

...from the Zodiac, a group of old Avengers villains...

...but he was too obscure, and boring to look at. I thought about the Griffin...

...but he was a griffin, not a lion. Marvel has a whole race of Cat People. I thought about using one of them, like this dude below...

...but, again, too obscure. Even though she's a girl and a tiger, I came close to using Tigra herself. However, my son told me I've already drawn her too much.

As I considered using Kraven, my other son reminded me that "craven" means "cowardly". A winner had emerged.

It's my fondest wish that my thoughtful examination of how to translate Wizard of Oz characters into Marvel or DC characters will be of great use to future generations.