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The Inferior Five (or I5) are a parody superhero team that premiered in the DC Comics title ''Showcase'' #62 (1966). Created by E. Nelson Bridwell (writer) and Joe Orlando and Mike Esposito (artists), the group was intended as a parody not only of the Fantastic Four, but of all the superhero teams whose members had such great powers that they could have solved any of the crimes put before them singlehandedly. The Five ''had'' to work as a team; none of them could have fought crime on their own. ==Fictional team history== The premise is that the characters were sons or daughters of members of a superhero team called the Freedom Brigade, a parody of the Justice League of America, and most of the Inferior Five were takeoffs of other popular DC characters, though Merryman's appearance was specifically modeled on Woody Allen. After appearing in ''Showcase'' #62, 63, and 65 (1966), they got their own title which lasted twelve issues. The first ten had new material and were published from 1967-68. In two memorable adventures (published in #7 and #10 respectively), they met a parody of Marvel' superheroes such Iron Man and Spider-Man (here called "Cobweb Kid") (#7), and then (#10) fought alongside the "Kookie Four" (the humorous version of the Fantastic Four) and Sub-Moron (an obvious look-alike to Namor) to repel an invasion of aliens with hypnotic eyes and garlic breath. Issues #11 and 12 were published in 1972, and titled ''Inferior 5'' (using the number 5 rather than spelling out the word) and were all reprints, except for new covers. Nothing changed with the alteration of the title. Afterwards they appeared sporadically after their own series was canceled, most notably in ''Showcase'' #100, one or two panels in ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', ''The Oz-Wonderland War'' #3 (March 1986), in a superhero Limbo in the Grant Morrison written ''Animal Man'' series. They appear in one panel in ''JLA: Another Nail'' as Flash and the Atom take a trip through many dimensions. Although the Inferior Five's original stories made frequent references to other prominent DC heroes, ''The Oz-Wonderland War'' #3 revealed their adventures to have actually occurred on "Earth-Twelve," which thus had its own doppelgangers of the JLA, the Teen Titans, etc., meaning that any such references were out of continuity in relation to the heroes of DC's primary Earth-One. Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, where the Five were seen in background cameos, the team's sole "continuity" appearance as a team was in the first ''Angel and the Ape'' miniseries, where it was revealed that Angel and Dumb Bunny are half-sisters. Members of the Justice League of America had cameos in the series, indicating that the Inferior Five now existed on the post-''Crisis'' Earth. Further appearances include: * Dumb Bunny and Merryman appeared in a crowd scene in ''Superboy''. * Dumb Bunny later made a solo cameo appearance at a super-hero convention in ''Bulleteer'', part of the ''Seven Soldiers of Victory'' series. * The Blimp was a pallbearer at Michael Jon Carter's funeral (''52'' Week 18). * Merryman appears as the "King of Limbo" in ''Final Crisis: Superman Beyond''. * Dumb Bunny figures prominently into the plot of the third issue of ''Ambush Bug: Year None'' * The Inferior Five team up with the Legion of Substitute Heroes in ''The Brave and The Bold'' #35. * The Inferior Five team up with Bat-Mite in ''Bat-Mite'' #5 (Dec. 2015). Bat-Mite transforms the Inferior Five into the Superior Six. Bat-Mite becomes leader, Merry Man becomes Merrimack, Awkwardman becomes Tripper, White Feather keeps his name, The Blimp becomes the Zeppelin, and Tough Bunny (no longer Dumb Bunny) becomes Rabbit. Steve Gerber proposed a Vertigo version of the Inferior Five as a send-up of the "dark 'n' gritty" comics of the period, but this was rejected.〔''Nevada'' #1 text page〕 Gerber later claimed that DC refused to publish anything with the title on the grounds that it would make them look "inferior" for publishing it.〔(January 23, 2005 post to the Howard the Duck Club (members only) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Inferior Five」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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