While I'm happy to see classic Popeye elements such as Wimpy and the nephews finally back in continuity after they were deemed "too silly" after COIE, I'm really confused by the whole merged Bluto/Brutus thing. And if they've changed his whole history with the Sea Hag, just what happened to his right eye in current continuity?

The merging of Bluto and Brutus really was the only way they could straighten out the mess created by Zero Hour's turning Bluto into Parrelax. Brutus was supposed to be the original Monarch, but at the last minute Max Fleischer came back from the dead and vetoed the move. John Byrne had asked Max to reserve Brutus to be the sole Popeye bully, as he had never really liked Bluto. So to straighten that mess out, in a very complicated scene that most writers have spent the last 13 years either trying to ignore or writing long brain-numbing sagas to make sense of, Pappy was written out of continuity (For all of three pages) and Popeye who was either going to have to follow him into oblivion or become his own father somehow remarked "Gershk! This is Re-bearisking,'" swallowed the the Guardians last can of Spinach and punched Bluto through the wall of reality. At that point in time Bluto disappeared and Hal Jordan became Parralax, Pappy came back from his banishment in Ragnarok and died with Al Pratt and Charles McNider, and Pepper Popeye, Pappy's illegitimate daughter ceased to ever have existed, thus losing forever an integral part of Legion Lore.

In the interest of re-instating Pepper Bluto had to be brught back, but in the interst of keeping the continuity as streamlined as possible Bluto and Brutus had to be presented as having always been two halves of the same person. At least we assume they were halves, perhaps we will meet a third self between now and Final Crisis.

I personally think that they are going to be split out back into seperate people when they are featured in Countdown #13. I think Doc Magnus is going to be forced to download one of the personalities into a responseometer and the new entity, my prediction is it will be Bluto, will be built from uranium byproducts become the driving force for villainy in a new series debuting in the aftermath of FC. It will be called Kid Popeye, and will feature a forcibly aged Swee' Pea, who will occasionally appear as a member of the Legion of Super-heroes from Earth 49.

I further predict that this continuity will be seriously retro- graded be "Final Crisis +4," beginning in January 2021.

Oh, and as far as the "Sea Hag/ Eye" question goes- at breakfast after their one-night stand in college, Olive squirted Popeye in the eye with some grapefrut juice (its how she maintains that girlish figure). The supressed animosity Popeye keeps lingereing in his heart for decades is what drives her into Bluto's arms, and, in the far future, to become the Sea Hag and use her magic to travel back through time and torture Popeye.

But what of Popeye's Pal, Wimpy? Current events have many strange happenings afoot for him...

What about the recent revalation that Olive Oyl stayed thin by abusing stimulants and emetics and that she suffers from several eating disorders?

Shocking to say the least.

Has anyone heard who've they've hired to complete Robert Altman's Popeye story? I was pretty excited when they announced last year that the famed director would be writing the comic. After all, he gave us the definitive movie version of Popeye. However, his untimely death seems to left the last half of his twelve issue arc up in the air.

Why not just tell the story of Wimpy or the nephews as young adults? I'm so tired of them rebooting to a young Popeye!

What of the rumor that Wimpy contracted Mad Cow Disease? "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger woof woof woof Eggs Florentine!"

But didn't Wimpy go vegetarian, have G-I bypass surgery and lose more weight than Al Roker?

Am I the only one who keeps needing to look at the title of the thread twice thinking at first that it was about Sailor Moon?

Yeah, you're the only one, Drake!

possibly

Wait someone rebooted Popeye as a trans sexual Japanese School Girl Manga character? And he magically becomes a man when he eats a can of testosterone laced spinach?

I thought it always thought it was odd that after Byrne retconned out Wimpy post COIE, later writers nonetheless introduced a sucession of different characters that used Wimpy's famous catch-phrase.

This may be in my top five favorites posts of all time!

You guys know Castor Oyl (Olive's brother) pre-dates Popeye right? No really!

Aw Shucks, I'm honored.

With all this talk of Wimpy, I feel the need to get myself to a JOHNNY ROCKETS.

Nope, you're not the only one. Let us get our eyes checked together.

I hear that Popeye - Red Son is "in-continuity" now. (Or maybe that was incontinent.)

Yes, but these days he only apparently only exists on Earth-49, where we've seen brief glimpses of characters resembling darker versions of the original Thimble Theater cast.

Yeah, but he and Baba Louie and Muttley are all par tof the "These people are already supposed to be dead" group.

And even if they aren't, don't forget that Dan DiDumDum has specifically stated that just because it looks like Castor (or Olive, or Snagglepuss) it doesn't mean it's OUR Castor (or Snagglepuss) This is a totally new multiverse that supposedly has tangentially little to do with pre-IC continuity, let alone pre-COIE.

I didn't mean to imply that Quicksdraw and Snagglepuss are going to be part of Earth 49 continuity. To the best of my knowledge he, Magilla Gorilla, Squidly Diddly, Atom Ant, Wally Gator, and at least the silver-age Secret Squirrel will remain on Earth-HB, the alternate dimension connected to Earth-4 (that's the Charlton Heroes isn't it?) the way Captain Carrot's Zoo Crew universe Earth-C is related to New Earth(*1*).

Of course, we haven't seen any stories set in these realities yet, so we don't know if Squidly is still the cross-dresser he was in the Vertigo version, If Wally really does eat any (and or all) of the children he fathers as he did in the horror comic mini, or if Magilla Gorrilla was ever the Rabid Vampire he became in the Wildstorm crossover.

I never accepted any of these as canon, and despite the fact that I am a huge fan of the 5YG Yogi Bear stories (I especially liked what they did with Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy) as I think they grew naturally out of the tepid stagnation of the first few years after COIE, I would rather have the world reset than keep perpetuate the badness further.

For example, I personally would rather the mylar-age Secret Squirrel be revealed as the illegitimate son of the original that he was hinted to be in the '82 mini-series (and all but acclaimed to be in 1989's 12-part "Year of the Squirrel" rather than the icky weirrd clone-child of Secret and Morocco Mole he seemed to be in the '95 series. If the two of them want to have a BROmance, let's see it in the comics and not have it ret-conned in 30 or more years later.

I do however think that Huckleberry Hound will be revealed to be the Time Trapper.

I must have mis-read it. I thought Wimpy now had Proty's brain...

Wait a minute. Are you saying Wacky Races aren't in continuity????

It doesn't really matter. None of these versions are the real/original/my personal favorite vision of the characters.

I mean I'm a fan of the PC Popeye but I really just see the small window that Bud Sagendorf did the stories as the REAL Popeye despite Segar being the creator.

Great Scott! I can't believe they're rebooting Popeye yet again!

That's all I can stands, cuz I can't stands n'more!

I wonder why they'd keep him with his 60's look if he's always dealing with modern issues like rape and incest?

I bet they retcon out the marriage to Olive Oyl!

I can't wait to see Sweet Pea in a V neck.

Apologies for straying from the topic, but I also hear that DC is relaunching UNDERDOG with the original, male UD.

I still vividly remember COIE #7, when he died blocking the Anti-Monitor's blast that was meant for Kara, and Sweet Polly Purebred's decision in issue 12 to start taking his energy pills to carry on for him.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/21/idw-am-what-idw-am-a-new-popeye-comic/

Hey, Mods. Shouldn't this thread be merged with the thread about spinach? Or vice versa?

Could we have a modernized look for Olive... Bigger boobs on the cover of a #1 do make for bigger sales.

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a Popeye comic today!

You'd think Olive would have been like this all along...for a guy named Popeye.

Okay, but if Olive gets a boob window, I'll never buy a Popeye comic again!

In other news, I understand Eugene the Magical Jeep has, thanks to a lawsuit with Chrysler, been retconned into Eugene the Magical Yugo.

*JEEP*

I've some really exciting news. To cash in on the video game and manga craze they've modernized the whole concept.

Popeye is now a plumber.
Olive Oyl is a Princess of the Spinach Kingdom
Bluto is a turtle/godzilla like thing that kidnaps Olive.
Eugene is a magical dinosaur that Popeye rides.

Popeye and his brother jump around the Spinach Kingdom collecting coins and cans of spinach hidden in bricks on their way to rescue Princess Olive.