Today, we look at five instances of comic book characters having "instant mullets" out of nowhere.

In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.

Today is the birthday of my pal, Albert Ching. I always like to do a 1990s-themed post for Albert's birthday, so here we are! Last year, I wrote about how the Man of Steel lost his mighty mullet during the 1990s, and today, I figure I'll spotlight this weird thing that happened in comics of the era where characters just had mullets spring up out of NOWHERE.

AQUAMAN REALIZED HOW COOL LONG HAIR LOOKS LIKE WAVING IN THE OCEAN

In the history of Aquaman, the character had a few odd periods where he seemed to just VANISH from the DC Universe. Sadly, this was just simply a matter of no one having anything interesting to do with the character. However, he was just too notable of a character to totally ignoreAtlantis, so he kept getting chances. Luckily, Peter David eventually gave him an excellent ongoing series that lasted for a number of years (after David had set up the run in an excellent miniseries, The Atlantis Chronicles, in 1990).

During one of Aquaman's dry spell (pun unintended, but I now wish I had thought of it intentionally), he teamed up with a pair of his fellow superheroes, Superman and Batman, to investigate whether the Suicide Squad had been involved in the alleged death of their old comrade in arms, Ray Palmer, the Atom (I actually wrote about that storyline last year). They discovered that Ray was actually alive. They discussed the deal with Ray in Suicide Squad #62 (by John Ostrander, Kim Yale, Geof Isherwood and Robert Campanela). Note Aquaman's hair..

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During that Suicide Squad storyline, though, Aquaman gained his own series in Aquaman #1 (by Shaun McLaughlin, Ken Hooper and Bob Dvorak) and now he is rocking an awesome flowy mullet...

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RELATED: Five Times Superheroes Had No Mouths But Needed to Scream

BOOSTER GOLD - THE MULLET OF THE FUTURE!

After Keith Giffen and J.M DeMatteis left Justice League America, Dan Jurgens took over the series as the new writer (as well as the artist, doing layouts for Rick Burchett) and Booster Gold returned to the team, re-forming "Blue and Gold" with the Blue Beetle. Jurgens tried to bring a sort of old school Justice League feel to the series, as seen in the opening cover for his first issue on the book, a reference to a classic Justice League of America storyline...

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Note Booster Gold's hair.

Well, right after that story ended, in Justice League America #63, Booster Gold was now rocking a big ol' mullet over his mask...

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I imagine Jurgens' position was that Booster Gold was always a guy who would try to get with the zeitgeist in the time he was in and mullets WERE cool at the time.

HERCULES LOST HIS BEARD AND GAINED A MULLET!

Hercules is a bit of a tricky subject, since his hair was never exactly like a crewcut or anything like that, but I think we can agree that it was clearly not a mullet when the classic Avengers creative team of Bob Harras, Steve Epting and Tom Palmer took over the book in Avengers #343...

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The issue at the time (well, "issue," since it really isn't that big of a deal) was that Thor was rocking a beard at the time and since Thor's beard could not be shaved since he had his own beard, in Avengers #350 (by Harras, Epting and Palmer), Hercules' beard is shaved off...

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This did not seem to automatically give him a mullet, like we saw in Avengers #355, as it seemed like he just had longer hair...

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But then, in Avengers #357, we see that Hercules is more rocking the "business in front, party in back" mullet look....

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By the time Hercules got a new costume a few issues later, he was basically doing a Sylvester Stallone in the 1980s, hair-wise.

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WHEN THE TITANS HUNT ENDED, DICK GRAYSON'S HAIR TOOK A LEAP

Once the Titans Hunt storyline was over, New Titans was in a weird stalling pattern, and with lots of delays and fill-in artists, which is how you get Tom Grummett drawing Dick Grayson without a mullet in the early parts of New Titans #86...

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but Jerome Moore kind of sort of giving him one at the end of the issue (I believe Al Vey inked all of the issue)...

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The next issue was also filled with fill-in artists (and Al Vey) and Dan Jurgens went all out with the mullet...

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I imagine that was purposeful, though, since the next issue saw Grummett redesign Nightwing's costume and the mullet was a big part of it...

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Nightwing's hair got a lot weirder over the next few years.

SPIDER-MAN'S CLONE BECAME HIS OWN MAN...BY GROWING A MULLET!

During the Clone Saga of the 1990s, the whole hook of Spider-Man's clone, Ben Reilly, is that he looked exactly like Peter Parker (Ben even filled in for Peter in prison when Peter was briefly framed for murder).

At one point, Peter and Ben were convinced that Ben was actually the original and that Peter was actually the clone!

In Spectacular Spider-Man #229 (by Tom DeFalco, Sal Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz), Peter and Ben team-up and we see that they look identical, right down to their haircuts...

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Peter decides to give up being Spider-Man, entrusting New York City to Ben (who was using the superhero name of Scarlet Spider at the time)..

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Well, right after that, the Spider-Man titles all pretended to start over as Scarlet Spider comics and in the first one, Web of the Scarlet Spider #1 (by Tom DeFalco, Todd Dezago, Paris Karounos and Randy Emberlin) we see that Ben is now rocking a mullet...

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Ben is forced to take on the Spider-Man identity soon afterwards, and the mullet was soon history.

SPECIAL BONUS EXAMPLE THAT DOESN'T REALLY FIT! GUY GARDNER HAIR GOT WEIRD WHEN HE BECAME AN ALIEN

During Guy Gardner's period where he discovered that he was part-alien (and thus gained superpowers from his alien heritage), his hair was kept cropped pretty close, as show in Guy Gardner: Warrior #32 (by Beau Smith, Joyce Chin, Ken Branch, Rodney Ramos and Andy Lanning) during a fight with the Justice League as part of a crossover...

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At the end of the crossover, Guy's hair was a bit longer in Guy Gardner: Warrior #34 (by Smith, Marc Campos and Dan Davis)...

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But the very next issue saw Joyce Chin and John Stokes have Guy's hair grow a LOT...

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Crazy. Not a mullet, but still crazy.

Happy birthday, Albert!

If anyone has suggestions for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!