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Posted in D&D vs. Marvel, DC vs. Marvel

DC vs. Marvel: Abstract Entities

Posted on March 20, 2016 | 4 comments

This essay will explore the nature of abstract entities, their relative place in the hierarchy of cosmic entities and then compare and contrast abstract entities in more detail in the DC and Marvel universes. Certain entities are the anthropomorphic equivalent of what is known in philosophy as an abstract object. In the DC and Marvel universe these types of beings are generally referred to as cosmic entities. All abstract entities are cosmic entities but not all cosmic entities are abstract entities. For example, the Celestials (Marvel) have permanent bodies and are cosmic entities but not abstract entities. How do you know if you are dealing with a cosmic entity or an abstract entity? There are three big tests.

1) If the entity has to shape shift in order to have a different appearance to fit different audiences then you are probably dealing with a cosmic entity that is not an abstract entity. If the entity appears to be different to different beings automatically with no effort on the part of the entity then the entity is probably an abstract entity. Mere mortals cannot perceive the abstract entity directly so they create a concrete perception on their own as a perceptual filter.

Dream appears as a Martian version of Dream in The Sandman-Preludes and Nocturnes V1 (Vertigo).

Dream then appears as a cat to a cat in The Sandman-Dream Country V3 (Vertigo).

2) If the entity has a clear function that supersedes their personal whims and identity then you are probably dealing with an abstract entity. Being an abstract entity in both the Marvel and DC universes seems to be accompanied by a certain level of dehumanization. In The Wake, when the original Dream dies and Daniel Hall, a mortal becomes the new Dream, the new Dream no longer has the same feelings for his mother.

Thanos (Marvel) decides to keep a physical body despite having infinite power due to the Infinity Gauntlet. Mephisto (Marvel) reflects that this is a fatal flaw that will ultimately be the undoing of Thanos. Why does Thanos do this?

If you take on a role in the universe then perhaps the being becomes amoral and more duty bound and perhaps this is the reason Thanos does not ascend to the status of being an abstract entity. If Thanos for example becomes death then Thanos cannot become the lover of death which is his main goal in life! Conversely, Death is incapable of sharing her role with Thanos because of her status as an abstract being. Abstract entities may sacrifice a certain degree of free will even as they become more powerful. Do abstract entities lose their subjective nature and become more objectified? Thanos may not understand this trade off consciously but senses this trade off at an unconscious level. Anyway, this sort of trade off would make cosmic entities much more interesting! You get more power over external reality and greater durability at the expense of your free will.

3) The entity may appear god like but the entities power level is absolutely independent of worship and actually many abstract entities are totally unknown to any being that is not a cosmic entity. This is especially true of the Seven Friendless (Marvel). Bast, the Egyptian Goddess, suffers due to a lack of worship.

Furthermore gods may begin in dream.

Type of Universe

The DC universe is Abrahamic. The highest being operates via aspects of his being and through angels as agents. Many of the angels have Judeo-Christian names.

Highest Being

The Presence is the highest being in the DC universe and operates not only through abstract entities but also uses aspects of his being and angels to manifest his will.

Aspects of the Highest Being

The aspects of the Presence are at the top of the cosmic hierarchy in the DC Universe. The aspects follow certain laws and if even very powerful cosmic entities try to violate the laws associated with the aspects then disaster will follow. Are aspects of the highest being abstract entities? The highest being in the DC universe seems to be beyond human understanding and beyond concepts of abstract versus concrete objects. The highest being in the DC universe might even be the source of abstract versus concrete objects. The Presence is mysterious and not easily classified. The Presence may ultimately be noumenon as opposed to phenomena and by definition unknowable. The Presence takes on a familiar form in order to explain itself.

The hand is one way the presence communicates and leaves a cryptic message “To know everything is to know how much is not known” which could be interpreted as saying that total knowledge of phenomena means we understand that noumenon is beyond our knowledge!

The immortal and powerful Krona creates a machine that can peer through time and sees the Hand of Creation but tries to see what happens before the Hand appears then evil is unleashed upon the universe. This story seems to be a cosmic version of the Adam and Eve story. The apple represents knowledge that is not meant for mortals. The Hand of creation represents knowledge that is not even meant for immortals.

The Source is the source of all creation and all being in the DC universe. Jack Kirby made the Source very mysterious. Jim Starling, does what he always does with cosmic entities, and reduced the very interesting Source into yet another predictable and boring slug fest cartoon character in Death of the New Gods.

The Source is guarded by the Source Wall.

The first version of the wall is less a wall than planetoids with giants bound to the planetoids.

The latest version of the Source Wall looks more like a wall.

The wall is very inappropriately turned into yet another slug fest device in Green Lantern Annual V5 #3. Black Hand controls the dead and uses his power to control the dead embedded in the Source Wall.

The Voice is divine will and the progenitor of the Word. The Voice is never heard but the Word is very active in Swamp Thing V2 #168-170.

Angels

The angels clearly have bodies. They have a singular appearance and do not change their appearance for different audiences which is one of the hall marks of an abstract entity.

Dumas is an angel that never talks and might be an aspect of silence.

Gabriel is the lord of the cherubim and seraphim.

Garaquael is in charge of spirits.

Lucifer is a fallen angel and the adversary.

Michael Demiurgos controls the demiurge.

Raguel is the vengeance of God.

Raphael oversees humanity.

The Saint of Killers is an angel of death willed by God.

Spectre is an angel of vengeance.

The Furies in the DC universe specialize in vengeance on those who have killed family members.

Abstract Entities

The Endless are the only cosmic entities in the DC universe that are clearly abstract entities. Everything in the DC universe is below aspects of the highest being including the Endless. The Endless do seem to be more powerful than gods. Gods fade as their nations and worshippers fade and the Endless are well endless. The Endless are clearly less powerful than at least one angel. Dream is clearly fearful of Lucifer. Lucifer is by far the most powerful of all the angels so being less powerful than Lucifer does not mean the Endless are less powerful than all angels.

1) Destiny is the embodiment of predestination. Do abstract entities lose their subjective nature and become more objectified as their power level increases? Destiny (Vertigo) does not appear to have much in the way of free will and is generally considered to be the oldest and therefore the most powerful of the Endless.

2) Death is the embodiment of the end of life. Death is a psychopomp, guide to souls, unlike her Marvel counterpart. Death generally dresses like in black casual clothes and wears a silver ankh on a chain around her neck, and has a marking similar to the eye of Horus around her right eye.

Death explains what a lifetime is to someone who has managed to live fifteen thousand years!

Death explains her role to Element Girl in The Sandman – Dream Country V3 (Vertigo).

3) Dream is the embodiment of dreaming.

Dream is tired of his role but his function is so much a part of who he is that he must engineer his destruction through an unconscious series of events.

Dream explains to Desire that abstract entities are a principle of causality rather than manipulators of causality! Becoming part of the very firmament of the universe means a price must be paid.

Abel (Vertigo) provides a short but incisive explanation of the secret of how immortality works for an abstract entity.

DC Abstract Entities-Abel-The Sandman-The Wake V10 (Vertigo) Lucifer (Vertigo) explains free will to Delirium (Vertigo) the nature of free will for abstract entities and the choices seem bleak.

4) Destruction is the embodiment of destruction and creation.

Destruction (Vertigo) walks away from his role in the universe and he tries to explain why he walked away to his brother Dream (Vertigo).

Destruction states, “Are not gross Bodies and Light convertible?” This is Newton’s version of what will eventually become the principle of Mass–energy equivalence (E = mc²) that will eventually lead to atomic weapons and a whole lot of destruction!

5) Desire is the embodiment of emotion including love and hate.

Desire explains her antipathy towards dream and her/his role to a moral supplicant in Endless Nights (Vertigo).

6) Despair is the embodiment of the emotion of despair.

7) Delirium is the embodiment of madness. Delirium was Delight until she was transformed.

Delirium was once Delight!

In The Sandman: Overture #5, (8) Time is revealed as the father of dream. The equivalent of Time in the Marvel universe is Eternity. (9) Night is the mother of Dream. (10) Dusk is a distant sister that serves under Night.

What is the first circle in relation to the other cosmic entities reviewed in this article? Delirium swears by the first circle in Brief Lives.

The Glory of the First Circle commends Dream in the name of the first circle in The Sandman – Overture #6.

Marvel

Type of Universe

The Marvel universe is essentially a dharmic universe i.e. there is a highest being but the highest being works through abstract entities that represent laws and principles of the universe rather than through direct agents. In Buddhism dharma means cosmic law and order. The Marvel universe has a clock maker but once the clock was made the clock maker decided to leave the clock alone.

Highest Being

The highest being in the Marvel Universe is the One-Above-All not to be confused with the One-Above-All (Celestial). The One-Above-All does not use an army of angels or aspects of his being as his agents and solely relies on the Living Tribunal as his agent. There does not seem to be very much communication between the One-Above-All and the Living Tribunal. The Living Tribunal generally acts autonomously. Thanos and Warlock have a rare extended conversation with the One-Above-All in Thanos-The Infinity Finale.

Aspects of the Highest Being

There is no Marvel equivalent to the aspects of the highest being that exists in the DC universe. This is because the Marvel universe is a dharmic universe which operates via laws rather than through the direct will of the highest being.

Angels

There are angels in the Marvel universe but they have nowhere near the importance of angels in the DC universe. The role of angels in the hierarchy of the Marvel universe is irrelevant given the dharmic structure of the Marvel universe.

Abstract Entities

1) Anomaly creates bodies for abstract entities.

Anomaly first appears in Quasar V1 #20 and Anomaly is killed and replaced.

The new Anomaly makes a deal with Oblivion in Quasar V1 #21.

2) Death is the embodiment of the end of life. Death also exists in the DC universe and has similar powers but is much more likeable. Death in the Marvel universe looks fearsome but takes on different appearances and even different genders with different persons.

Death first appears in Captain Marvel V1 #26.

3) Empathy is the embodiment of the emotion of empathy.

4) Enmity is the embodiment of conflict.

5) Entropy is the embodiment of destruction.

Entropy first appears in Captain Marvel V4 #4 (2003).

Entropy explains what he is in Captain Marvel V4 #5 (2003). Entropy has some serious daddy issues.

6) Eon nurtures sentient life. Eon first appears in Captain Marvel V1 #28.

7) Is Epiphany the embodiment of madness? Epiphany first appears in Captain Marvel V4 #5.

8) Epoch nurtures sentient life. Epoch first appears in Quasar V1 #27.

9) Eternity is the embodiment of time of the universe.

Eternity’s first appearance is in Strange Tales V1 #138.

10) Eulogy is in charge of endings. Eulogy first appears in Captain Marvel V4 #25 (2004). Eulogy seems to narrowly be in charge of comic book character endings. In the DC universe characters go to Limbo but Eulogy guides characters to a mysterious glowing door instead.

11) Expediency is in charge of quick solutions. Expediency first appears in Captain Marvel V4 #25 (2004).

12) In-Betweener is the embodiment of duality. The In-Betweener first appears in Warlock V1 #9.

13) Infinity is the embodiment of space in the universe.

14) Is Kronos the defender of the universe?

Kronos first appears in The Invincible Iron Man #55.

15) The Living Tribunal maintains the cosmic balance at a multiverse level. The Living Tribunal first appears in Strange Tales #157 (1967).

16) Lord Chaos is the embodiment of chaos. DC has the Lords of Chaos and Order but they seem to be gods rather than abstract entities. Lord Chaos and Master Order both appear for the first time in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 (1977).

Lord Chaos and Master Order attempt to convince Galactus with argument and then force to once again take on his role as the devourer of worlds and renounce his new role as a life bringer. Galactus ultimately wins (Ultimates #6, 2016). Galactus is part of the cosmic hierarchy but not an abstract entity. Galactus resembles Shiva the Destroyer in Hinduism. Both are destroyers but Shiva’s roles are much more complex and even contradictory. Shiva is part of a triad called the Trimurti that also includes Brahmin and Vishnu. Galactus is part of a triad as well that includes Eternity and Death. The Hindu dharmic universe has a superficial resemblance to the Marvel dharmic universe.

17) Master Order is the embodiment of order.

18) Mirage is the embodiment of nothingness. Mirage first appears in Iceman V1 #3.

19) Mistress Love is the embodiment of love. Mistress Love first appears as a man that the Enchantress falls in love with in Defenders V1 #107. Mistress Love is identified in the next issue, Defenders V1 #108.

20) Numinus is the embodiment of numinosity i.e. causes small changes to create awe in the universe in the person affected. Numinus first appears in Power Pack V1 #51.

21) Oblivion is the embodiment of nothingness. Oblivion has a brief cameo in Iceman V1 #1 but his first important appearance is in Iceman V1 #3.

22) Sire Hate is also known as Master Hate and is the embodiment of hate. Sire Hate first appears in Infinity Gauntlet #3.

23) Unbeing is the embodiment of un-creation. Unbeing first appears in Quasar V1 #18.

Marvel Abstract Entities-Unbeing-Quasar V1 #18 - Page 28 Jim Starlin is the foremost creator of the over the top cosmic entity conflict and in marked contrast with Neil Gaiman’s emphasis on internal as opposed to external conflict. The Infinity Saga includes the Infinity Gauntlet #1-6, Infinity War #1-6, Infinity Crusade #1-6, Warlock and the Infinity Watch (1992) #7-10 & #18-22, Warlock Chronicles (1993) #1-5, and Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #108-111 and uses the fist a cuff approach when dealing with cosmic entities.

Since this article was posted, Marvel has added some layers to their cosmic hierarchy including the Proemial Gods (Marvel) introduced in Annihilation – Heralds of Galactus #2. This suggests that in some ways Galactus is like the New Gods in DC i.e. an inheritor of the universe from older Gods. I would also add that the Proemial Gods appear to be exhibit more physicality and capriciousness as opposed to their successors Galactus, Eternity and Death.

In Ultimates 2 #2, Lord Chaos and Master Order destroy the Living Tribunal!

In Ultimate 2 #3, Lord Chaos and Master use the In-Betweener to unite and become Logos (Marvel). Logos (Greek) is an important concept in Greek philosophy. Logos (Christianity) in Christianity is the title of Jesus Christ! Logos (Marvel) is surrounded by angelic wings suggesting visually that the dharmic Marvel universe is becoming more Abrahamic!

Comic Book Proposal: The Mad Immortals

Jim Starlin, to his credit, wrote the first modern cosmic entity story titled …The Birth of Death which was first published in Star Reach #1 in B&W in 1974. The story was reprinted and colorized by Eclipse in Star Reach Classics #1. I read the original story in a head shop while I was still in high school and the story just blew me away! I explore the impact of comic books on my life in my essay titled Hugh Fox III Comic Book Autobiography. In the interests of comic book history I present the Eclipse reprint version below.

There are some visual similarities between the characters in the Starlin story and He-Man characters. Death does resemble Skeletor visually. The unnamed muscular opponent of Death resembles He-Man visually. He-Man was designed by Mark Taylor in 1976 which is two years after …The Birth of Death was published. Maybe Mark Taylor saw the story by Jim Starlin and got some ideas or maybe not.

In the story, Death manages to kill all the mad immortals except seven of them! There are also seven Endless! Maybe the seven mad immortals are the DC antimatter universe version of the Endless! I really think Jim Starlin and Neal Gaiman should team up on the story of the Seven Mad Immortals! Brian Michael Bendis in the comic book Alias (Marvel) goes back and forth from a more realistic art style to a more cartoonish art style. The standard superhero story with an emphasis on superhero fist a cuffs is presented in the more cartoonish style. The personal story of how mind control effected the heroine Jessica Jones internally is drawn in a more realistic manner. Scott McCloud explains how these two different art styles effect the reader at the cognitive level in Understanding Comics –The Invisible Art.

Jim Starlin could write a story about the fights of the seven Mad Immortals and draw it in his fairly realistic manner. Neil Gaiman provides a counterpoint story from an internal POV of the Seven Mad Immortals in a more anime style. The comic book switches back and forth between the two story lines and thus the first comic book using counterpoint is created! The following is my list of the Endless of the anti-matter universe. All of the Mad Immortals have enhanced durability due to their abstract entity status. The Mad Immortals see themselves as champions of life not mad but have decided to appropriate the name Death has given them. The Anti-Matter universe is asleep and dreaming unlike other universes. The Mad Immortals have learned how to manipulate this state of affairs to their own advantage.

1) Amnesia has the power of memory manipulation on a planetary scale. Amnesia routinely erases memories so Death has no trail to follow. Amnesia can insert memories to create a false trail but generally erases memories. Amnesia can also scan the memories of any being.

2) Ghost has the power to make himself and the other Mad Immortals totally imperceptible to all except Death who can see through this power but only if right next to the person using this power.

3) Logos has super intelligence and is the leader of the group. Logos can also merge the Mad Immortals into a single being that is omniscient and combines all the powers of the Mad Immortals but only for a short period of time.

4) Machine can turn others into robots that serve the Mad Immortals on a planetary scale.

5) Mirror can make duplicates of himself or others. The duplicates of others retain all abilities and powers but have to obey Mirror. Mirror can make thousands of copies. Mirror can also make duplicates of objects and creates copies of money and resources such as weapons as needed.

6) Phobia can cause fear on a planetary scale and uses this to power distract Death.

7) Twilight has the power of metafictional transportation. Ghost can transport herself and others into fictional realms that Death cannot enter. Ghost can only enter stories that have a critical mass of followers and therefore can make the story manifest in the imagination of the universe. Normally even abstract entities cannot enter the imagination of a universe but a sleeping universe is more vulnerable to such transport than a universe that is awake. Ghost can also banish Death to a metafictional realm for a time if Death is within her line of sight. Death can leave a fictional realm once Death has finished the story. However, if Death does not finish a story successfully that is according to the logic of the story then Death may be trapped in a story forever.

The Mad Immortals want to awaken the universe to create a being akin to Eternity in the Marvel universe and therefore radically diminish the power of Death in the antimatter universe. Death must destroy the Mad Immortals before their plan can be accomplished.

Conclusion

There are far fewer abstract entities in the DC universe than the Marvel universe. The abstract entities in the DC universe are less likely to be involved in fist fights than the abstract entities in the Marvel universe due largely to the influence of Neil Gaiman. The main conflict of the DC abstract entities is between their sense of duty and their desire to be free rather than conflict with other cosmic entities. Abstract entities occupy a more central role in a dharmic, Marvel universe than an Abrahamic, DC universe. Abstract entities of the DC universe largely appear in The Sandman series. Abstract entities in the Marvel universe appear prominently in the Infinity Saga which is the brainchild of Jim Starlin and engage in more external as opposed to internal conflict.

Neil Gaiman decided to give all the Endless names starting with “D” after Daniel the Biblical prophet. The letter D is the most negative letter in the alphabet. The letter D corresponds to the number 4, and the planet Saturn or Pluto, and the principles of matter and death. The Chinese consider 4 to be the most unfortunate number and avoid it at all costs because it sounds like “death” when pronounced in Cantonese, and actually helps bring it about. It is perhaps our version of the unlucky 13 which adds up to 4(1+3) in numerology. The Endless do seem to be much more tragic than their Marvel counterparts.

I think less is more when it comes to cosmic entities in general and abstract entities in particular. I remember my first Galactus story way back when in Fantastic Four #48 and how special this story was. Galactus has been overused and so have cosmic entities in general in the Marvel universe. Also, having Galactus get defeated over and over again makes him much less awe inspiring. I mean Galactus is even defeated by Squirrel Girl in Squirrel Girl V1 #4.

No, not really and actually the Squirrel Girl story might be my favorite Galactus story ever!

Abstract objectification as a superpower is explored at:

Abstract Objectification

The difference between superheroes, gods and abstract entities is explored at:

Embodiment (function)

DC vs. Marvel Articles

Comic Book Articles

You can also download my autobiography of my struggle with a bipolar condition on Am I Kitsune on my Google Drive.

WereVerse Universe Baby!

Google Drive Link: WereVerse Universe

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Tagged Abrahamic, Abstract Entities, angels, anomaly, Aspects of the Highest Being, DC, Death, Delirium, Demiurge, desire, Despair, Destiny, Destruction, Dharmic, dream, Dumas, Empathy, Enmity, Entropy, Eon, Epiphany, Epoch, Eternity, Eulogy, Expediency, Gabriel, Garaquael, Highest Being, In-Betweener, Infinity, Kronos, Living Tribunal, logos, Lord Chaos, Lucifer, Marvel, Master Order, Michael Demiurgos, Mirage, Mistress Love, Numinus, Oblivion, One-Above-All, Proemial Gods, Raguel, Raphael, Saint of Killers, Sire Hate, Spectre, The Endless, The Hand, The Presence, The Source, The Source Wall, The Voice, The Word, Type of Universe, Unbeing

DC Superheroes versus Marvel Superheroes Chess Set Proposal

Posted on April 25, 2012 | 2 comments

I have already proposed a revision of the Superman versus Batman chess set. I have proposed a DC superheroes versus DC supervillains set. Below is my third proposal:

King – Superman

Queen – Wonder Woman

Bishop – Green Lantern

Knight – Batman

Rook – Flash

Pawn – Checkmate Field Agent

Marvel

King – Thor

Queen – Storm

Bishop – Iron Man

Knight – Captain America

Rook – Hulk

Pawn – S.H.I.E.L.D. Field Agent

WereVerse Universe Baby!

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Posted in Art, Comic Book Critique, DC vs. Marvel

Tagged Batman, Bishop, Captain America, Chess set, DC vs. Marvel, Flash, Green Lantern, Hulk, Iron Man, King, Knight, Pawn, Queen, Robin, Rook, Spider-Man, Storm, superhero chess set, Superheroes, Superman, Supervillains, Thor, Wonder Woman

DC vs. Marvel: Big Monsters

Posted on March 19, 2012 | 8 comments

What is a monster? According to the online version of Merriam-Webster:

“1 a: an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure b: one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character. “

Using definition (b), then just about every super villain would be a monster. If you add (a) then you still have super villains like Doctor Doom who are deformed. IGN already wrote an excellent article about DC versus Marvel super villains and I do not want to go over ground already covered. This article instead will focus on big monsters. The ultimate archetype of the big monster would be Godzilla. There is even a particular word in Japanese for this sort of monster: daikaijū. Monsters generally are big but how big does a monster have to be a daijuku? I think over 20 feet and if the monster can wrap his/her hand around your waist with one hand like King Kong picking up a damsel in distress then that’s the clincher.

The Silver age was all about big monsters and although Kirby’s Silver age monsters over at Marvel get all the attention, you can actually find a ton of big monsters at DC if you know where to look.

Major Heroes

Aquaman faced three major giant sea monsters during the Silver age. The following Aquaman, volume 1, issues have a giant monster: #7- The Creatures from Atlantis, #20 – Two-Headed Beast, and #56 – The Creature that Devoured Detroit. All the monsters are one-shots and not memorable. Aquaman is often fighting a whale, giant jellyfish or giant shark or whatever but these are little two panel exercises not even worth mentioning. The author looked at 61 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 61 / 3 = 20.3

Batman has faced at least 20 giant monsters. In Batman volume 1, Batman fought: #75 – Gorilla Boss, #104 the Creature from 20,000 Fathoms, #134 – Rainbow Creature, #138 – Sea Beast, #142-Tezcatlipoca, #143 – Bat-Hound and the Creature, and #162 – The Batman Creature.

In Detective Comics, Batman fought giant monsters in #252-Creature from the Green Lagoon, #255 – Robot Dinosaurs, #270 – Creature from Planet X, #272 – Menace of the Crystal Creature, #277 – Jigsaw Creature from Space, #278 – Giant, # 279 – Creatures that Stalked Batman, #282 – Cave Eel, #288 – the Multiple Creature, # 291 – Creature of the Bat Cave, # 295 – Secret of the Beast Painting, # 297 – Beast of Koba Bay, and #303 – Murder in Skyland. The author looked at 667 Batman issues and 800 Detective Comics issues for a total of 1,467. The ratio of issues to monsters is 1467 / 20 = 73.35

Green Lantern faced four monsters in the Silver age in Green Lantern, volume 1, in issues: #6 – Giant monster on Xudar, #8 – Giant Gila Monster from the Future, #30 – Dinosaurs, #34 – Giant Iguana, #53 – Giant Alien. All the monsters are one-shots and not memorable. The author looked at 201 issues to find these four giants monsters. The ratio of issues to giant monsters is 201 / 4 = 50.25

The Legion of Super-Heroes deals with several alien and interstellar monsters in volume 1. The Monster Master even created the Legion of Super Monster’s which includes: the earthquake beast that can cause earthquakes, the eye monster can shoot lightning, heat-vision, x-rays, and blinding light, the mirror monster can reflect any energy force off its shiny armor-plated hide, the drill beast can drill through anything. Finally, the omnibeast can travel in space, air, land, or sea. Computo is yet another giant robot conqueror created by Braniac 5 who kills one of the bodies of Triplicate Girl in the Silver age and death in the Silver age is rare and special plot wise. The Sun-Eater is probably the biggest, baddest, giant monster in the DC universe. Galactus is the devourer of worlds but the Sun-Eater is a devourer of suns! The Sun-Eater is a weapon created by the Controllers, a super race in the DC universe and is generally mindless. Lighting Lad loses his arm to the Super-Moby Dick of Space in Action Comics #332. Any sort of permanent injury was almost unheard of in the Silver age so the giant monster is an integral part of an important story.

Superboy faced Validus when he was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Validus is actually stronger than Superboy and it took the combined might of Superboy, Mon-El and Ultraboy to defeat Validus. The Silver age Superman and Superboy are much much stronger than the Modern Age Superman. Validus is probably the second most powerful giant monster in the DC universe after the Sun-Eater which did defeat Validus (Adventure Comics #353). Three important, powerful, giant monsters come out of the Legion of Super-Heroes including Computo, the Sun-Eater and Validus. The Legion of Super-Heroes breaks the pattern of many one-shot monsters that are not memorable in order to create monsters of great power that are memorable and an important part of the DC Universe history.

Superboy faced a few giant monsters as well. In Adventure Comics #30 there is a creature quite similar to Jimmy Olsen’s transformation into a Giant Turtle Man in Jimmy Olsen #53. Superboy fought a giant Thought Monster of Krypton as a baby and a boy in Superboy #87 and #102 respectively. In Adventure Comics #185, Superboy fought a Griffin. In Adventure Comics #196, Superboy fought Kingorilla, a giant ape.

Superman’s most famous giant monster is Titano the Super-Ape who was like King Kong with Green Kryptonite vision. In Adventure #295, the world is introduced to Bizzaro Titano that has Blue Kryptonite vision which is deadly to Bizzaros. Superman has also faced 17 other giant monsters in the pages of Superman including: #78- The Beast from Krypton, #86 – The Dragon from King Arthur’s Court, #110 – Giant Ant, the Flame Dragon of Krypton, #127 – Titano, #138-Titano, # 151-Child of the Beast from Krypton from issue #78, #246 Danger Monster at Work, #324 Titano Returns, #348 Storm God, #357- Cosmic Monster, #379 – Chemo.

In Action Comics, Superman faced monsters in #326 – Legion of Super-Creatures, #343 – Eterno, #502 – Galactic Golem, #516 – Army of Dinosaurs, #519 – Cosmic Creature, #664 – Tyrannosaurus Rex, # 671 – Sea Serpent, and #758 – Rock Lobster. The author looked at 666 Superman issues and 873 Action Comics for a total of 1539 to find the 18 monsters mentioned. The ratio of issues to monsters is 1539 / 18 = 85.5.

Wonder Woman faces 36 giant monsters in Wonder Woman volume 1 during the Silver age including #64 – The 3-D Terror, #66, #87 – Island of Giants, #91 – The Eagle Who Caged People, #97 – Dinosaur, #100 – The Forest of Giants, #105 – The Eagle of Space, #106 – Giants Olympic Contest, #109 – Wonder Girl in Giant Land, #112 – Chest of Monsters, #113 – Invasion of the Sphinx Creatures, #114 – The Monster Express, #116 – Cave of Secret Creatures, #119 – Sea Serpent, #120 – Secret of the Volcano Mt., #121 – The Island-Eater, #123 – Giant Cobra, #128 – Living Seaweed, #135 – The Attack of the Human Iceberg, #138 – Stone Giant, #143 – Fire Breathing Dragon, #145 – Phantom Sea-Beast, #146 – War of the Underwater Giants, #147 – Griffin & Giant Centipede, #148 – Dinosaur in a Department Store, #149 – Giant Flame Creature, #150 – The Phantom Fisher-Bird, #151 – Gooey Monster, #152 – Ice Bird, #154 – Boiling Man, #171 – Trap of the Demon Fish-Man, #233 – Jaws of the Leviathan, #239 – Animated Statue of Liberty, #257 – Dinosaur, #265 – Dinosaurs, and #284 – A Dragon Stalks the Streets. The author looked at 327 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 327 / 36 = 9.083. Wonder woman has the highest number of monsters among major heroes!

The Justice League of America had two memorable giant monsters including Starro and the Shaggy Man. Starro first appeared in Brave and Bold #28 and was the very first super villain that the Justice League of America faced! Starro has reappeared many times since then. The Shaggy Man first appeared in JLA #45 and is another giant monster that reappears several times albeit different persons assume the identity of the Shaggy Man. The Justice League had plenty of one shot monsters as well. The Justice League fought several Dungeons and Dragons type of giant monsters in JLA #2. In JLA #15 the Justice League fights an Easter Island sort of monster. Superman fights a giant purple roman robot in JLA #34. There are also one shot monsters that don’t even rate a proper name in JLA #36, #40, and #52. If you don’t count reappearances of Starro or the Shaggy Man then the Justice League fought eight monsters in 261 issues looked at (261/8 = 32.6).

The Second Tier Heroes

Jack Kirby’s contribution to monsters in the Marvel universe will be discussed in that section of the article but Jack Kirby also created a large number of monsters for the silver age Challengers of the Unknown. The tone was set in one of their earliest adventures in Showcase #7 when they fought a giant robot called Ultivac. In Challengers of the Unknown volume 1 there are giant robots 13 in the following issues: #16 -the Incredible Metal Monster, #18 – Invincible Beast of Tomorrow, #19 Beasts of Tomorrow, #20 Cosmic Powered Creatures, #22 the Creature Challenger Mountain, #26 – Aqua Beast, #27-Volcano Man, # 32 Volcano Man returns, #35 – Moon-Beast, #41 – Quadruple Man, #47 – Sponge Man, #51-Sponge Man returns, and #59-The Petrified Giant. The author looked at 91 issues to find the 13 giant monsters. The ratio of monsters to issues is 91 /13 = 7.

The Silver age Doom Patrol had one giant monster they fought more than once and that was the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. Doom Patrol ,volume 1, had the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man in #89, #93 – Giant Robot, #95 Return of the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, #96 – Giant Jukebox, #97 – Elasti-Girl Transforms to Crystal Giant Menace, #100 – Dinosaur, #103 – Meteor Man, #105 – Mr. 103, #106 – Mr. 103 returns looking like the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, #109 – Mandred the Executioner, #111-Zarox 13 King of the Criminal Cosmos, #113 – Arsenal, #114 – Kor the Conqueror, #115 – The Mutant Master, and #116 – The Galactic Gladiator. The Doom Patrol fought 14 monsters in 39 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 39 / 14 = 2.7.

The Metal Men battled several giant robots that fit the giant monster definition but one of the more famous giant monsters of DC is not a robot: Chemo. Chemo is a collection of chemicals that comes to life. Chemo is vaguely malevolent but mostly mindless. Unlike the giant robots that the Metal Men fought, Chemo survived past the Silver age and made it to the Modern Age. Chemo was a major character in the Infinite Crisis series (2005). Some of the giant robots the Metal Men fought include the Skyscraper Robot, Torgola, the Rebel Robot, Robot Juggernauts, and Volcano Man, who is not a robot. The Doom Patrol and Challengers of the Unknown also fight a Volcano Man but I don’t think this is the same one. The author looked at 56 issues. The Metal Men battled 6 big monsters. The ratio of issues to monster is 56 / 6 = 9.3.

Rip Hunter Time Master in the Silver age is another “B” title that has more than its share of big monsters. Ripe Hunter is a time traveler that seems to find big monsters in every age not just the prehistoric ones. Rip Hunter and his time traveling team fought ten giant monsters. Big monsters are in #1 – 1,000 Year Old Curse, the volcano Creature, #2 – The Alien Beasts from 500 BC, #3 – Giant Octopus sort of creature, #5 – Alien Beast, #7 – Dinosaurs in the past, #8 – Giant Genie, #9 – Alien Flying Creature, #18 – Dinosaur but in the future, 2550 AD, #28 – Rip is turned into a giant monster, and #29 – Giant insects in the present. The author looked at 30 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 30 / 10 = 3.

The Silver age Teen Titans were a second tier super hero team. In the Modern age the Teen Titans became a first tier super hero team and giant monsters disappeared from their pages. In volume 1, the Silver age, Teen Titans giant monsters appeared in the following issues: #1 – The Beast-God of Xochatan, #2 – The Million Year Old Teenager (Giant Caveman), #8 – A Killer Called Honey Bun (Giant Robot), and #32 – A World Gone Mad (Sea Monster). There were four monsters. The author looked at 53 issues of volume 1 of the Teen Titans. The ratio of issues to monsters is 53 / 4 = 13.

Tomahawk is an especially odd Silver age second tier hero in an era of odd heroes. Tomahawk is an American Revolution hero who fights British redcoats and their Native American allies except they are definitely called American Indians in these pre-PC comic books. Tomahawk has the distinction of fighting lots of giant American Indians during the Silver age. Tomahawk fights giant monsters in the following Issues: #46 – The Valley of Giant Warriors (Giant Indians), #58 – The Frontier Dinosaur, #64 – Mystery of the Giant Warrior (Giant Indian), #67 – The Beast from the Deep, #70 – Secret of the Iron Chief (Giant Indian Robot), #73 – Secret of the Indian Sorceress (Giant Sea Serpent), #74 – The Beast from the Labyrinth (Pink Stegosaurus), #75 Master of the Legendary Warrior (Giant Indian with fangs), #78 – Legend of the Sea Beast (Sea Serpent), #82 – Lost Land of the Pale-Face Tribe (Dinosaur), #86 – Tomahawk vs. King Colosso (Giant Ape), #89 – The Terrible Tree Man (Giant Tree Man), #90 – The Ranger vs. the Prisoner in the Pit (Giant Reptile), #91 – The Indian Tribe Below the Earth (Giant Salamander), #92 – The Petrified Sentry of Peaceful Valley (Giant Petrified Indian), The Return of King Colosso (Giant Ape returns), #94 – Rip Van Ranger (Giant Bird), #95 – Tribe Beneath the Sea (Giant Fish), #99 – King Cobweb and his Giant Insects (Giant Insects controlled by Indian), #100 – The Weird Water-Tomahawk (Giant Water Creature), #102 – The Dragon Killers (Dragon), #103 – The Frontier Frankenstein (Giant Frankenstein), #104 – The Fearful Freaks of Dunham’s Dungeon, #105 – Attack of the Gator God (Giant Reptile), #107 – Double-Cross of the Gorilla-Ranger (Giant Ape), #109 – The Caveman Ranger (Dinosaurs), and #115 – The Deadly Flaming Ranger (Giant Flame Creature). The author looked at a 129 issues of Tomahawk. Tomahawk fights giant monsters in 27 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 129 / 27 = 4.7. Tomahawk also has the honor of having fought four giant Indians! I think this has to be some sort of hero record.

Blackhawk had several one-shot monsters including Blackhawk #120 (Metal Cyclops), #140 (Tyrannosaurus Rex), #146 (Giant Mechanical Scorpion), #148 (Flying Serpent), #150 (Giant Eagle), #152 (Octi-Ape, Ape with eight limbs), #154 (Beast that Time Forgot), #164 (Twin Creatures of Blackhawk Island), #193 (Valley of the Angry Giants, Giant Mesoamerican Indians), #198 (Giant Nazi Robot), and #226 (Secret Monster of Blackhawk Island). The author looked at 96 issues and found monsters in 11 of them. The ratio of monsters to issues is 8.7.

Speculative Fiction Anthologies

In the Silver age both DC and Marvel had speculative fiction anthologies and these were the true homes of monsters and big monsters in general. The vast majority of monsters in both the DC and Marvel universes were created in these speculative fiction anthologies.

House of Mystery, volume 1, has big monsters in the following issues: #41 – Brontosaurus, #53 – Forbidden Statues, #70 – The Creatures from Nowhere, #71 – Moon Goddess, #74 – Dragon of Time Square, #79 – Creature of Inner Space, #80 – Earth’s Super Prisoner, #85 – Easter Island Monsters and similar to Marvel’s the Things on Easter Island, #86 – The Beast that Slept 1,000 Years, #87 – The Menacing Pet from Pluto, #89 – Secret of the Cave Light, #90 – The Runaway Bronc from Venus, #91 – The Forbidden Face of Fa-San, #96 – Pirate Brain, #99 – The Beast with Three Lives, #101 – The Magnificent Monster, #102 – Cellmate to a Monster, #104 – The Seeing Eye Man, #107 – Captives of the Alien Fishermen, #109 – Secret of the Hybrid Creatures, #110 – The Beast that Stalked Through Time, #111 – Operation Beast-Slayer, #112 – The Menace of Craven’s Creatures, #113 – Prisoners of Beast Asteroid, #114 – The Movies from Nowhere, #118 – Secret of the Super-Gorillas, #119 – The Deadly Gift from the Stars, #120 – The Cat-Man of Kanga Peak, #123 – Lure of the Decoy Creature, #125 – The Fantastic Camera Creature, #130 – Alien Creature Hunt, #131 – Vengeance of the Geyser God, #132 – Beware the Invisible Master, #133 – The Captive Queen of Beast Island, #134 – The Secret Prisoner of Darkmoor Dungeon, #138 – The Creature Must Die, #140 – Giant Alien, #141 – The Alien Gladiator, #143 Martian Manhunter’s sidekick Zook becomes a giant monster, #149 – Giant Insects, #152 Martian Manhunter fights a giant alien named the Creature King, #153 – Martian Manhunter fights the Giants who slept 1,000 years, and #154 – Prisoner of the Purple Demon. House of Mystery had 46 giant monsters. The author looked at 300 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 300 / 46 = 6.5.

House of Secrets, volume 1, had monsters in the following issues: #1 – House of Doom, #11 – The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Growing, #19 – Lair of the Dragonfly, #24 – Beast from the Box, #25 – Secret of the Sea Monsters, #26 – Menace of the Alien Ape, #27 – Secret of the Fossil Egg, #28 – Horse like Monster, #29 – Queen of the Beasts, #30 – Creature City, #31 – Hybrid Monster, #34 – Puzzle of the Plundering Creatures, #37 – Secret of the Captive Creature, #38 – The Fantastic Flower Creatures, #39 – Alien Bird of Prey, #40 – Master of the Space Beasts, #41 – Dinosaur in Times Square, #44 – Valley of Doomed Creatures, #45 – Destiny of Dooms, #47 – Creatures of Camouflage Forest, #48 – Beware the Guardian Beast, #51 – Mystery of the Stolen Creatures, #53 – Mark Merlin’s Giant Double, #55 – Battle of the Titans, #63 – Cave filled with various giant monsters, #69 – Kill the Giant Cats, #71 – Giant Who Once Ruled Earth, #72 – Revolt of the Morloo, and #73 – Eclipso Battles the Sea Titan. House of Secrets had 29 big monsters. The author looked at 153 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 153 / 29 = 5.2.

Strange Adventures did “spawn” one memorable giant amphibian and that is the giant frogs. The frogs appeared in issues #130 and # 155. The giant frogs are pictured below:

Also the Faceless Hunter from Saturn first appeared in issues #124, #142, and #153. The Faceless Hunter from Saturn has made several appearances in the Modern age and even was in a cartoon episode of Batman: Brave and Bold (Siege of Starro! Part Two, Season 2, Episode 15). Also yellow giants with ears shaped like butterflies who collected humans like humans collect butterflies appeared in issues #119 and #159. Giant monsters that appeared in volume one of Strange Adventures include: #7 – Giant Ants, #11 – Serpent, #21 – The Monster that Fished Men, #28 – Indestructible Giant, #30 – The Great Ant Circus, #41 – Dinosaurs, #44 – Giant Plant, #50 – World Wrecker Robot, #52 – Prisoner of the Parakeets, #72 – The Skyscraper came to Life, #76 – The Tallest Man on Earth, #82 – Giants of the Cosmic Ray, #91 – Giant from Jupiter, #97 – Secret of the Space – Giant, #101 – Giant from Stalk, #104 – World of Doomed Spacemen, #112 – Menace of the Size-Changing Spaceman, #113 – Deluge from Space, #118 – The Turtle Men from Space, #119 – Raiders from the Giant World, #120 – Attack of the Oil Demons, #122 – David and the Space Goliath, #123 – Secret of the Rocket-Destroyer, #124 – The Face-Hunter from Saturn, #125 – The Flying Gorilla Menace, #127 – Menace from the Earth Globe, #129 – The Giant Who Stole Mountains, #130 – War with Giant Frogs, #133 – Invisible Dinosaurs, #139 – The Space Roots of Evil, #142 – Return of the Faceless Creature, #151 – Invasion via Radio-Telescope, #153 – Threat of the Faceless Creature, # 155 – Return of the Giants Frogs, #157 -Plight of the Human Cocoons, #159 – The Maze of Time, #165 – Secret of the Insect Men, #167 – Gorko the Night Creature, #168 – The Hand that Erased Earth, #170 – The Creature from Strange Adventures (Infinity Cover), #193 – Zomzu the Living Colossus, and #194 – The Bracelet of Deadly Charms. Some of the monsters already identified were reprinted in later issues of Strange Adventures. Strange Adventures yields 42 giant monsters! The author looked at 232 issues for this article. The ratio of issues to big monster is 232 / 42 = 5.5.

Tales of the Unexpected had big monsters in issues #17 – Moon Beast, #20 – You Stole Our Planet, #36 – Prisoners’ of the Lighthouse Creatures, #40 – Battle of the Colossal Creatures, #48 – The Beast from the Invisible World, #50 – Sun-Creature, #51 – Mercurian Quill Thrower, #52-Guardian Beasts of the Life Stone, #53 – Creature in the Glass Ball, # 54 – Dinosaurs of Space, #55 – Ghost Creatures of Phobos, #57 – The Jungle Beasts of Jupiter, #59-Org, #60-The Beasts from Space Seeds, #61 – Guardians of the Moon Emperor’s Treasure, #63 – Secret of the Space Circus, #65 – The Alien Brat from Planet Byra, #67 – The Beast that Space Ranger Protected, #68 – Prisoner of the Giant Robot, and #70 – Xorog, #201 – Giant Rabbit! Tales of the Unexpected has 21 big monsters. The author looked at 208 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 208 / 21 = 9.9.

Conclusion

Overall, the secret to finding big monsters in the DC universe is to focus on the Silver age. Also do not to look in the mainstream hero comics like Aquaman, Batman, Green Lantern and Superman. The range of ratios for first tier heroes is 20.3-90.5.

However, every other issue in the second tier comics hero comics like the Doom Patrol, Metal Men, Rip Hunter Time Master, Teen Titans, Tomahawk, Challengers of the Unknown, and the Sea Devils has big monsters. The range of ratios was 2.7-9.3. So a big monster is more or less ten times more likely to show up in a second tier hero adventure than a first tier hero adventure.

My theory is that the editors felt that if the hero could not sell the magazine then maybe a giant monster plastered on the cover could. Also, one of the defining flaws of the second tier heroes is a lack of a roster of strong recurring super villains. Big monsters were used as a substitute for strong villains and this strategy in hindsight was not very successful.

The speculative fiction anthologies: House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Tales of the Unexpected, and Strange Adventures are the place to find the vast majority of DC monsters. The speculative fiction anthologies are generally called science fiction comic books but I think this is a misclassification. These Silver Age anthologies spanned the spectrum of horror to fantasy to science fiction and actually quite a bit of supernatural fiction. They were the comic book equivalent of the Twilight Zone, definitely speculative fiction rather than the Outer Limits, a more narrowly science fiction show. The monsters in these anthologies span the gamut of supernatural to horror to science fiction monsters. The Vertigo Modern Age reboots of the House of Mystery and Strange Adventures stay far away from giant monsters that are still popular but considered cheesy and not up to the artistic standards of the Vertigo press. The range of ratios for the speculative fiction anthologies was from 5.2-9.9. This range of ratios is similar to the range of second tier heroes. However the range is greater for second tier heroes.

Wonder Woman (9.083 ratio) is an exception to the first tier hero rule. In particular, the Silver age, Wonder Woman was fighting giant men in a large number of issues. More detailed analysis shows that these giants often treat Wonder Woman like a plaything or even jewelry of the giants. All the giants in Wonder Woman probably reflect some weird psychosexual dynamic at work as is often the case with the Wonder Woman title from the Golden age all the way the way to the present. Could some sort of role reversal be at work? Young boys who are sick of being pushed around by their giant mothers derive vicarious pleasure from seeing Wonder Woman being played with by giant men? Or did Wonder Woman just attract the weirdos of the comic book industry?

MARVEL

First of all I want to give special thanks to the Monster Blog! This website is the ultimate online resource for anyone who is interested in the vast number of monsters that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created. These monsters are often referred to as Kirby monsters. The blog lists 210 monsters and almost all of them fit the big monster definition. If you remove all human monsters, monsters that are too small, and imaginary monsters, then are still left with the following list of big monsters:

Back From the Dead, Bombu, Bruttu, Colossus, Cyclops, Diablo, Don Russell, Dragoom, Elektro, Fin Fang Foom, Gargantus, Goliath, Gomdulla, Googam, Goom, Gorgilla, Gorgolla, Gor-Kill, Grogg, Groot, Grottu, Gruto, Gxenu and MARK VIII, I Dream of Doom, It Crawls By Night, Jason Wilkes, Klagg, Korilla, Kraggoom, Kraa, Krang, Kurrgo, Lo-Karr, Magneto, Manoo, Mechano, Metallo, Mister Morgan’s Monster, Mongu, Monsteroso, Monstro, Monstrollo, Monstrom, Moomba, OOG, Orrgo, Paul Marshall, Pildorr, Robot X, ROE, Rommbu, Rorgg, Shagg, Shangri-La, Sporr, Spragg, Sserpo, Taboo, Temujai, the Abominable Snowman, the Alien Gladiator, the Alien Observer, the Aliens from Dead Storage, the Aliens from the Wax Museum, the Blip, the Brute That Walks, the Chamber of Fear, the Changeling, the Crawling Creature, the Creature From Krangro, the Creature From Krogarr, the Creature From Planet X, the Dragon, the Flying Saucer, the Forbidden World, the Genie, the Genie With the Light Brown Hair, the Glob, the Gorilla Man, the Green Thing, the Hypnomonster, the Impossible Tunnel, the Insect Man, the Invaders, the Leader, the Living Totem, the Living Trees,the Lizard Men, the Luna Lizards, the Martian, the Martian Plant Creature, the Martian Who Stole a City, the Martians, the Midnight Monster, the Miracle Man’s Monster, the Mole Man’s Monster, the Molten Man-Thing, the Monster At the Window, the Monster Escapes, the Monster In the Iron Mask, the Mummy, the Ninth Wonder of the World, the Other Cyclops, the Robot Colossus, the Roc, the Sandman, the Scarecrow, the Scarlet Beetle, the Scorpion, the Screemies, the Seeds of Doom, the Space Beasts, the Space Dragon, the Spider, the Statue Gods, the Statue Maker, the Stone Men From Saturn, the Swamp Aliens, the Thing, the Thing Called It, the Thing From the Hidden Swamp, the Thing Hunts For Me, the Thing in the Black Box, the Things on Easter Island, the Tree Alien, the Twilight World, the Two-Headed Thing, the Warriors from Igneous Rex, the Weed, the World Below, Thorr, Titan, Titano, Torr, Trull, Vandoom’s Creature, Wilbur Fiske, Xemnu the Titan, X, X-13, Zemu and Zetora the Martian

However, as much fun as all those monster were for me growing up, they are all one-hit wonders with the exception of the Fin Fang Four that includes Googam, Elektro, Gorgilla and of course Fin Fang Foom. Xemnu cloned five Kirby monster’s including Groot, Goom, Taboo, Diablo, and The Blip in order to fight the incredible Hulk. The Hulk is kind of a Kirby monster magnet. The Hulk also fights It the Living Colossus. The Hulk along with the Beast, Giant Man and the Thing fought Tragg , Groot , Taboo, Grottu , Droom , Vandoom , Gargantus , Rommbu , Grogg , Moloids , Fin Fang Foom , Mole Man and the Collector in the 2005 one-shot Monsters on the Prowl. The Hulk has fought a couple of modern age big monsters including the Bi-Beast and Umbu the Unliving (Hulk #110). Some other modern age big monsters include the Devil Dinosaur, Dragon Man, Giganto , Midgard Serpent, the Moles Man’s monsters and Wendigo. Marvel has a universe style guide of their monsters: Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone and the Monster Hunters.

I have not included Godzilla in the list of giant monsters at Marvel! Godzilla is a Toho Studios monster and his foray into the Marvel universe was poor fit. Marvel no longer has the licensing rights to Godzilla and hopefully this sorry episode in the Marvel Universe is dead, dead, dead, forever. Godzilla could lift 20,000 tons with ease. Thor and the Hulk are 100 ton lifters! So this interloper is about 200 times stronger than the heavyweights of the Marvel Universe! How can Marvel superheroes fight this guy at all? Yet they do rather than being squashed like ants! Suspension of belief is a delicate thing that Godzilla in the Marvel Universe practically destroyed. Just a poor fit on every level. Keep in mind I am the author of Hello Kitty vs. Godzilla so when I find a story to be over the top then that’s saying a lot.

There is a misconception that Marvel has more monsters, especially giant monsters, than DC. DC actually created more monsters during the Silver age than Marvel but they were much less memorable and spread across many titles as one-shots and many of the monsters did not even have names. Ironically, Kirby did have a monster comic book at DC, Challengers of the Unknown, but the fact that this comic book was filled with monsters has been totally ignored until now.

Fing Fang Foom is easily the premiere giant monster at Marvel. Fing Fang Foom has appeared in over 20 issues across the spectrum of Marvel titles. Fing Fang Foom appears in toy form in Iron Man 2008. Fing Fang Foom in the only Kirby monster to be made into a HeroClix giant figure! Fing Fang Foom is arguably one of the more interesting Kirby monsters visually as you can see from the HeroClix figure picture below:

Validus faces off against Fing Fang Foom. Fing Fang Foom can sense that Validus has a the mind of a child and tries to communicate with Validus but Validus is immune to telepathy. Validus rips off one of Fing Fang Foom’s arms with ease. Fing Fang Foom is a genius level strategist and decides it.s time to run for the hills. Fing Fang Foom starts to fly away. Validus does not have the power of flight. Validus zaps Fing Fang Foom from the sky with his unique mental lightning which can even knock out the Silver Age Superboy. Fing Fang Foom decides to die ironically, and as Validus cradles the dying Fing Fang Foom, Fing Fang Foom says, “Rosebud” with his dying breath. Validus doesn’t get the joke and looks for something else to smash.

Other articles in the DC vs. Marvel Series:

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Tagged Ape with eight limbs, Aquaman, Batman, Beast that Time Forgot, Big Monsters, Blackhawk, Blackhawk #120, Blackhawk #140, Blackhawk #146, Blackhawk #148, Blackhawk #150, Blackhawk #152, Blackhawk #154, Blackhawk #164, Blackhawk #193, Blackhawk #198, Blackhawk #226, Bombu, Brave and Bold #28, Bruttu, Challengers of the Unknown, Colossus, Comic Book Monsters, Cyclops, DC Monsters, Diablo, Don Russell, Doom Patrol, Dragoom, Elektro, Fin Fang Foom, Flying Serpent, Gargantus, Giant Eagle, Giant Mechanical Scorpion, Giant Mesoamerican Indians, Giant Nazi Robot, Goliath, Gomdulla, Googam, Goom, Gor-Kill, Gorgilla, Gorgolla, Green Lantern, Grogg, Groot, Grottu, Gruto, Gxenu and MARK VIII, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, I Dream of Doom, It Crawls By Night, Jason Wilkes, JLA #15, JLA #2, JLA #34, JLA #36, JLA #40, JLA #45, JLA #52, Justice League of America, Klagg, Korilla, Kraa, Kraggoom, Krang, Kurrgo, Lo-Karr, Magneto, Manoo, Marvel Monsters, Mechano, Metal Cyclops, Metal Men, Metallo, Mister Morgan’s Monster, Mongu, Monsteroso, Monstro, Monstrollo, Monstrom, Moomba, Octi-Ape, OOG, Orrgo, Paul Marshall, Pildorr, Rip Hunter Time Master, Robot X, ROE, Rommbu, Rorgg, Sea Devils, Secret Monster of Blackhawk Island, Shagg, Shaggy Man, Shangri-La, Sporr, Spragg, Sserpo, Starro, Strange Adventures, Sun-Eater, Superman, Taboo, Tales of the Unexpected, Teen Titans, Temujai, the Abominable Snowman, the Alien Gladiator, the Alien Observer, the Aliens from Dead Storage, the Aliens from the Wax Museum, the Blip, the Brute That Walks, the Chamber of Fear, the Changeling, the Crawling Creature, the Creature From Krangro, the Creature From Krogarr, the Creature From Planet X, the Dragon, the Fin Fang Four, the Flying Saucer, the Forbidden World, the Genie, the Genie With the Light Brown Hair, the Glob, the Gorilla Man, the Green Thing, the Hypnomonster, the Impossible Tunnel, the Insect Man, the Invaders, the Leader, the Living Totem, the Living Trees, the Lizard Men, the Luna Lizards, the Martian, the Martian Plant Creature, the Martian Who Stole a City, the Martians, the Midnight Monster, the Miracle Man’s Monster, the Mole Man’s Monster, the Molten Man-Thing, the Monster At the Window, the Monster Escapes, the Monster In the Iron Mask, the Mummy, the Ninth Wonder of the World, the Other Cyclops, the Robot Colossus, the Roc, the Sandman, the Scarecrow, the Scarlet Beetle, the Scorpion, the Screemies, the Seeds of Doom, the Space Beasts, the Space Dragon, the Spider, the Statue Gods, the Statue Maker, the Stone Men From Saturn, the Swamp Aliens, the Thing, the Thing Called It, the Thing From the Hidden Swamp, the Thing Hunts For Me, the Thing in the Black Box, the Things on Easter Island, the Tree Alien, the Twilight World, the Two-Headed Thing, the Warriors from Igneous Rex, the Weed, the World Below, Thorr, Titan, Titano, Tomahawk, Torr, Trull, Twin Creatures of Blackhawk Island, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Validus, Valley of the Angry Giants, Vandoom’s Creature, Wilbur Fiske, X, X-13, Xemnu the Titan, Zemu, Zetora the Martian

DC vs. Marvel: Sidekicks

Posted on August 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

This post will compare sidekicks of the DC and Marvel universes. Which universe has the best sidekicks? First of all, what is a sidekick? Wikipedia provides the following definition “A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies”. Wikipedia in the same article expands on the functions of a sidekick “Sidekicks can provide one or multiple functions, such as a counterpoint to the hero, an alternate point of view, or knowledge, skills, or anything else the hero doesn’t have. They often function as comic relief, and/or the straight man to the hero’s comedic actions. A sidekick can also act as someone more relatable to the audience than the hero, or whom the audience can imagine themselves as being (such as teen sidekicks). And by asking questions of the hero, or giving the hero someone to talk to, the sidekick provides an opportunity for the author to provide exposition, thereby filling the same role as a Greek chorus”. A sidekick is not a villain’s henchmen or the romantic interest of a hero which is generally referred to as a companion.

The picture above got me thinking about sidekicks. The picture is from page 199 of the graphic novel Bizzaro Comics (2001). Bizzaro Comics is a hilarious collection of indie writers and artist’s parodies of DC comic titles. This picture is from the story titled Without You I’m Nothing and follows the travails of obscure discarded sidekicks. I am a comic book historian and do get a kick out of stories that use obscure characters like this story does. I was not able to identify all the side kicks in the picture but have a partial answer key at the end of this post. This post also attempts to provide definitive lists of sidekicks in the DC and Marvel universes and the Wikipedia definition was strictly adhered to. Many obscure characters that have not been included in prior lists of this nature have been included in this post. Below is a definitive list of DC sidekicks that will be discussed later.

List of DC Sidekicks

Superhero	Sidekick	First Appearance
Aquaman	Aquagirl 1 (Lisa Morel)	Adventure Comics #266 (November, 1959)
Aquaman	Aquagirl 2 (Tula)	Aquaman (vol. 1) #33 (May-June 1967)
Aquaman	Aqualad (Garth)	Adventure Comics #269 (February 1960)
Aquaman	Topo (Octopus)	Adventure Comics #229 (October 1956)
Aquaman	Qwsp	Aquaman (vol. 1) #1 (January-February 1962)
Batman	Ace the Bat Hound	Batman #92, June 1955
Batman	Alfred Pennyworth (Butler)	Batman #16 (April-May 1943
Batman	Bat-Girl (Bette Kane)	Batman #139 (April 1961)
Batman	Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)	Detective Comics #359 (January 1967)
Batman	Batgirl (Cassandra Cain)	Legends of the Dark Knight # 120 (August 1999)
Batman	Robin 1 (Dick Grayson)	Detective Comics #38 (April 1940)
Batman	Robin 2 (Jason Todd)	Batman #357 (March 1983)
Batman	Robin 3 (Tim Drake)	Batman #436 (August 1989)
Batman	Robin 4, Spoiler, Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)	Detective Comics #647 (August 1992)
Batman	Robin 5 (Damian Wayne)	Batman #655 (September 2006)
Batman	Robin Earth II (Richard Grayson)	Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940)
Blackhawk	Lady Blackhawk (Zinda)	Blackhawk # 133 (February 1959)
Blue Devil	Kid Devil	Blue Devil #14 (July 1985)
Booster Gold	Goldstar	Lobo #5 (May ’94)
Booster Gold	Skeets	Booster Gold (vol. 1) #1 (1986)
Captain Marvel	Captain Marvel Jr.	Whiz Comics #25 (December 1941)
Captain Marvel	Lieutenant Marvels	Whiz Comics #21 (1941)
Captain Marvel	Mr. Tawky Tawny (Anthropomorphic Tiger)	Captain Marvel Adventures #79
Captain Marvel	Uncle Marvel	Wow Comics #18 (October 1943)
Captain Mid-Nite	Hooty the Owl	All-American Comics #25 (April, 1941)
Chameleon Boy	Proty I	Adventure Comics #308 (May 1963)
Chameleon Boy	Proty II	Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #72 (October 1963)
Crimson Avenger	Wing How	Detective Comics #20 (October 1938)
Flash	Impulse (Bart Allen)	Flash (vol. 2) #92 (June 1994)
Flash	Kid Flash I (Wally West)	The Flash (vol. 1) #110 (December 1959)
Flash	Kid Flash II (Iris West)	Kingdom Come #3 (July 1996)
Flash	Kid Flash III (Bart Allen)	Teen Titans (vol. 3) #4 (December 2003)
Flash	S’kidd Flash	Flash vol 2 #235 (February, 2008)
General Glory	Ernie the Battling Boy	Justice League America # 46 (January 1991)
Green Arrow	Amber Archer (Connor Hawke)	Green Arrow vol 2 #0 (October, 1994)
Green Arrow	Arrowette	World’s Finest Comics #113 (November 1960)
Green Arrow	Speedy I (Roy Harper)	More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941)
Green Arrow	Speedy II (Mia Dearden)	Green Arrow (vol. 3) #44 (January 2005)
Green Lantern	Gen’ma	Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #6
Green Lantern	Doiby Dickles	All-American Comics #27 (June 1941)
Green Lantern	Terry Berg	Green Lantern (vol. 3) #129 (October 2000)
Green Lantern	Thomas Kalmaku (Pieface)	Green Lantern (Vol. 2) #2 (September-October 1960)
Icon	Rocket	Icon #1 (May 1993)
Johnny Thunder	Black Lightning the Horse	Flash Comics #1 (January 1940)
Joker	Harley Quinn	The Batman Adventures #12 (September 1993)
Justice League of America	Snapper Carr	The Brave and the Bold #28 (February-March 1960)
Justice League International	G’nort (Green Lantern, Humanoid Dog)	Justice League International #10 (February, 1988)
Knight	Squire (Cyril)	Batman #62,(December 1950)
Little Boy Blue	Tubby, Toughy	Sensation Comics #1 (January, 1942)
Martian Manhunter	Zook	Detective Comics #311 (January, 1963).
Mr. Scarlet	Pinky the Whiz Kid	Wow Comics #4 (1940)
Owlman	Talon	Teen Titans vol. 3 #38 (September 2006)
Plastic Man	Woozy Winks	Police Comics #13 (November 1942)
Robin	Flamebird (Mary Elizabeth Kane)	Teen Titans #50 (October, 1977)
Tomahawk	Dan Hunter	Star-Spangled Comics #69 (June 1947)
Sandman	Brute	The Sandman #1 (May 1974)
Sandman	Glob	The Sandman #1 (May 1974)
Sandman	Sandy the Golden Boy (Sandy Hawkins)	Adventure Comics # 69 (December 1941)
Space Ranger	Cyrll	Showcase #15, (July 1958)
Star Hawkins	Ilda (Robot)	Strange Adventures #114 (March 1960)
Star-Spangled Kid	Stripsey (Pat Dugan)	Action Comics #40 (September, 1941).
Superboy	Pete Ross	Superboy #86 (January 1961)
Super-Girl	Comet the Super-Horse (Biron)	Action Comics #292 (1962)
Super-Girl	Streaky the Super-Cat	Action Comics #292 (1962)
Superman	Bo “Bibbo” Bibbowski	Adventures of Superman #428 (May 1987)
Superman	Jimmy Olsen	Action Comics #6 (November 1938)
Superman	Krypto	Adventure Comics #210 (March 1955)
Superman	Super-Girl	Superman #123 (August 1958)
TNT	Dan the Dyna-Mite (Daniel Dunbar)	World’s Finest Comics #5 (Spring 1942)
Vigilante	Stuff the Chinatown Kid	Action Comics #45 (February 1942)
Wonder Woman	Etta Candy	Sensation Comics #2 (Feb. 1942)
Wonder Woman	Wonder Girl 1 (Wonder Woman as a teenager)	All-Star Comics #8 (December 1941),
Wonder Woman	Wonder Girl 2 (Donna Troy)	The Brave and the Bold vol. 1 #60 (July 1965)
Wonder Woman	Wonder Tot	Wonder Woman #105 (April, 1959)

Robin wins the best DC sidekick prize easily. Robin is the first teenage super hero sidekick and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Robin has been flattered to death. DC went ahead and created an army of teenage sidekicks. Eventually the teenage sidekicks of the major superheroes founded a teenage sidekick version of the Justice League called the Teen Titans. The original Teen Titans included Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin and Wondergirl. Later still, Young Justice is created. The Teen Titans and Young Justice meet in a giant sidekick crossover between their two groups.

The obvious absurdity of Robin is that crime fighting is dangerous work even for an adult like Batman and introducing a minor to crime fighting makes no sense whatsoever except as a plot device. Batman’s villains were obviously very aware that Robin was the weak link and Two-Face even referred to Robin as the boy hostage. The psychologist Fredric Wertham decided there was a homosexual subtext in the Batman and Robin relationship and wrote about this in Seduction of the Innocent. Batman goes through a whole slew of Robins and eventually one gets killed brutally by the Joker with a crow bar in a Death in the Family. Jason Todd is the lucky Robin to suffer death and the best part is that readers entered a poll to decide if he lived or died. Truly a low point in comic book history but a lot of Batman issues were sold so all in all the project was a success. Later Robin 4 (Stephanie Brown) in the identity of the Spoiler is even more brutally killed by the Black Mask with a power drill.

Of course no one really dies in comic books so Jason Todd return as the Red Hood and wants some payback from Batman for letting him die and secondly, and probably more importantly letting the Joker live. The five Robins all get starring roles after Batman “dies”. The ex-Robins have all become heroes in their own right. I would argue that the Red Hood is an antihero not a villain. Robin 1, Dick Grayson, has become Nightwing. Robin 3, Tim Drake, becomes Red Robin. Stephanie brown is resurrected from her power drill death and becomes Batgirl. The male Robins are all potential impersonators of the dead Batman. The Red Hood gets in the act and kind of forces Dick Grayson to become the new Batman because if he doesn’t then the Red Hood will assume the role. The potential heirs to Batman agree that the death of Batman should be hidden and one of them should pretend to be the original Batman. This is similar to the Phantom, the ghost who walks that has the son of the prior Phantom assume the role of the Phantom so as to give the illusion that the Phantom never dies. The Robins are basically sons of Batman but unfortunately there is more than one son i.e. more than one Robin and succession is not clear. This jockeying between the Robins is largely covered in the Batman miniseries Battle for the Cowl but this power struggle affected all Batman related titles of the last year. Dick Grayson does a good job impersonating Batman but doesn’t fool Commissioner Gordon. The new Batman of course needs a new Robin and gets a psychopath kid, due to being trained by the League of Assassins since childhood. This new Robin is the long lost son of Bruce Wayne and called Damian Wayne. Confused? Everyone is confused so don’t feel bad. I am sure the writers of the Batman lines have cheat cards on their desks. Will the barnacles of Batman history eventually sink the line? Maybe!

Robin and his teenage copies at DC and even Marvel have so dominated the sidekick market in comic books that readers tend not to look at the broader literary concept of a sidekick when looking at comic books. Another Batman sidekick is Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred provides an alternate point of view to the audience as well as the ability to aid Batman when he is hurt. Alfred has surgical skills gained when Alfred was an army medic. Alfred was also in the theater and can pretend to be Batman when needed. This is a rarely used skill of Alfred that is nevertheless crucial when someone is too close to discovering Batman’s identity. Robin is presumably too small to provide a similar function and anyway Robin needs to be by Batman’s side so people don’t think Robin is pretending to be Batman. Alfred Pennyworth can be extremely critical and sarcastic with Batman unlike the army of Robins. Alfred provides an “adult” perspective about Batman to the reader. Alfred has known Batman since he was a child. Alfred is aware of the how the killing of Batman’s parents made Batman a great crime fighter at the expense of a normal life. The Red Hood has argued with Batman that most of his hard core rogues gallery only fear death and the fact that Batman does not kill and the fact that the villains know this limits the effectiveness of Batman as a crime fighter. Batman may be able to instill fear in common criminals but provides more challenge than fear to the likes of the Joker. In Batman #647, Alfred actually agrees with the Red Hood mentally but does not express his views to Batman verbally.

Batman is a serial teenage sidekick mentor and there is something very creepy about this. Any “normal” person would not expose even one minor to extreme violence and certainly would not continue this behavior after the death of Jason Todd much less the subsequent death of Stephanie Brown. Alfred has expressed dismay about the use of teenage sidekicks many times to Batman. However, Alfred in the end is the dutiful butler who does what his master wishes despite any misgivings about such a course of action. Alfred’s subordination to Batman’s wishes despite sarcastic remarks is what makes Alfred a sidekick rather than an equal partner. Batman is not the only member of the Batman story line with a sidekick.

The Joker, Batman’s archenemy, has a sidekick! Villains generally do not have sidekicks but henchmen, minions or lackeys. Villains are generally egomaniacs and incapable of having long lasting meaningful relationships or so the theory goes. Villains see their henchmen as disposable cannon fodder. The Joker generally treats those around him in precisely this manner but there is one exception and that is Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn was a female psychiatrist that treated the Joker at Arkham Asylum and turned to the dark side rather than curing the Joker. Harley Quinn is in love with the Joker but the relationship has clearly never been consummated. The Joker obviously sees Harley Quinn as a capable sidekick even if Harley Quinn wants more. Harley Quinn is a near superhuman gymnast who uses her skill with great combat effectiveness. Harley Quinn wears a Jester outfit and became friends with Poison Ivy at Arkham were she ironically resided after her break down. Harley Quinn provides comic relief to Joker stories that despite the name of the Joker were not very funny before Harley Quinn showed up.

The Joker had been jealous of Batman having Robin as a sidekick in the silver age and got his own one-shot sidekick in Batman #186 called Gaggy. The main function of Gaggy was to provide comic relief to then Joker since such comic relief led to the Joker having great crime ideas. Gaggy rather simplistically hated Robin and managed to knock Robin out with a head butt to the stomach. Gaggy was never heard of after that one issue. I think an issue in which Gaggy, embittered by being discarded by the Joker, targets Harley Quinn for assassination might be interesting. Harley Quinn turns to Batman to figure out who is trying to kill her and clues are left that the culprit is a dwarf with a penchant for practical joke paraphernalia. Since not an awful lot of characters fit that description, Batman deduces that the culprit is Gaggy! Did I mention I like obscure comic book characters? Batman’s sidekicks on the whole do not provide comic relief. This is not the case of Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel also has an army of sidekicks but largely for comic relief. Mr. Tawky Tawny is an anthropomorphic tiger i.e. a funny animal that gets into all sorts of silly trouble Captain Marvel can save the tiger from. Uncle Marvel is an older bumbling version of Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel was always a sillier line than his doppelganger Superman.

Flash is another serial sidekick character that has gone through three Kid Flash characters. Kid Flash was clearly inspired by Robin. Super speed is a major power that is very much underestimated in comic books. Basically you can hit the bad guy a hundred times and dodge whatever the bad guy tosses at you. “Realistically” the foes of the Flash should stand no chance against the Flash. Captain Cold has a freeze gun. The Flash should be able to dodge anything the cold gun can come up with. A teenager with super speed is still incredibly powerful despite being a teenager unlike Robin who has no super powers and even the inferior strength of someone who is younger. Maybe a Kid Flash can only punch with half the power of an adult but a hundred punches later and even the toughest boxer is going down.

Green Arrow has had two teenage sidekicks named Speedy. The first Speedy grows up to become a heroin addict, but recovers, and there is some suggestion that maybe crime fighting as a teenager might not be all that healthy psychologically and contributed to the heroin addiction.

Superman only has one teenage sidekick and that is Jimmy Olsen. In the silver age, Jimmy Olsen was officially Superman’s best pal and again very creepy if you think about it. Superman is perennially in his early thirties and if I saw some thirty year old hanging around a teen rather than a guy his own age then I would wonder exactly what function this teenager serves. Jimmy even has a watch with an ultrasonic signal that allows him to call Superman when he is in danger. Lois Lane does not have such a watch! Teenage guy gets the watch but not the gal? Maybe the silver age Superman had reasons for not marrying Lois Lane that had more to do with subconscious gender preference than any other reason.

Superman has a dog called Krypto. In the silver age, Batman got a dog called Ace but there is no comparison with Krypto and Ace in terms of importance. Superman in the silver age was Superboy and Krypto and Superboy were constant companions. This is one of the healthier sidekick relationships in comic books. Krypto cannot talk but can communicate to the reader via thought balloons that show what Krypto is thinking. Krypto’s attempts to understand Superboy’s behavior using canine logic were pretty cute and comical and one of the few things that made the otherwise lame Superboy title work.

The current Supergirl has no hyphen between “Super” and “Girl” in her name. The current Supergirl is a hot babe in a half shirt who has fled to the 31^st century to avoid being a sidekick! The silver age Super-Girl, on the other hand, was very much a sidekick. She was teenager attending high school and was kept as a secret weapon for much of her silver age career. Super-Girl was Superman’s cousin so no fear of hanky-panky that would make her a companion. However, Super-Girl does try to match Superman up with an adult version of her on another planet!

Super-Girl has sidekicks in her own right! Super-Girl has a super cat named Streaky and a super horse named Comet. Somewhere in the Superman family there is a super monkey named Beppo but I am not really sure who he belongs to. All the super animals unite with Proty to create the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31^st century. Years later Marvel will make its own group of superhero animal sidekicks. Proty is the sidekick of Chameleon Boy who is a member of the Legion of Super Heroes of the 31^st century. Proty I sacrificed himself to revive the dead Lighting Lad but a Proty II soon shows up. Proty I and II are aliens that look like blobs and can mimic just about any form.

That leaves us with Wonder Women’s sidekicks. The silver age Woman had several sidekicks. Etta Candy was a fat rather stupid college student who was supposed to be used for comic relief but was more obnoxious than funny. The silver age Wonder Woman went through a rather silly phase in which she had adventures with herself as a Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot! Wonder Woman used Amazonian technology to create films of herself that showed “what if” adventures with her younger versions. I have to tell you I was maybe seven when a lot of these adventures came out originally and I was totally confused. I assumed Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot were sisters of Wonder Woman and didn’t find out the “truth” until I was in my thirties. Wonder Woman is probably one of those silver age titles that is really hard for modern readers to digest but the title had a fantasy quality that was very different from the more sci-fi quality of most silver age stuff and appealed to my young imagination. Wonder Woman may go down in literary history as the only character that had two versions of herself as her own sidekicks. The graphic novel Bizzaro Comics (2001) does have a story with Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl racing to sit next to Wonder Woman during lunch and destroying half the Amazon city in the process. Later, a more Robin like Wonder Girl was created as a sidekick.

Below is a list of Marvel sidekicks that will be discussed at the end of this list:

List of Marvel Sidekicks

Superhero	Sidekick	First Appearance
Avengers, Iron Man	Edwin Jarvis (Butler)	Tales of Suspense #59 (Nov 1964)
Captain America	Bucky I	Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941)
Captain America	Bucky II (Rick Jones)
Captain America	Free Spirit	Captain America vol. 1 #431 (September 1994)
Captain America	Jack Flag (Jack Harrison)	Captain America #434, (December 1994)
Captain Britain	Jackdaw	The Incredible Hulk Weekly #57 (April 1980)
Captain Marvel	Falcon (Sam “Snap” Wilson)	Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969)
Daredevil	Foggy Nelson	Daredevil v1 #1 (April 1964)
Deadpool	Weasel	Deadpool: The Circle Chase #1 (August 1993)
Deadpool	Blind Al	Deadpool #1 (Jan. 1997)
Deadpool	Bob, Agent of HYDRA	Cable & Deadpool #38 (May 2007)
Doc Samson	Geiger	Captain America vol. 1 #431 (September 1994)
Doctor Strange	Wong	Strange Tales #110 (Jul 1963)
Falcon	Redwing (Hawk)	Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969)
Franklin Richards	H.E.R.B.I.E. (Robot)	Fantastic Four #209 (August 1979)
Hulk	Jim Wilson	Incredible Hulk v1 #131 (September, 1970)
Hulk	Teen Brigade	Incredible Hulk v1 #6 (March 1963)
Hulk, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Avengers	Rick Jones	Incredible Hulk v1 #1 (May 1962)
Human Torch	Toro	Human Torch Comics #2 (Fall 1940)
Inhumans	Lockjaw (Dog)	Fantastic Four #45, (December 1965)
Ka-Zar	Zabu (Sabertooth Tiger)	X-Men #10 (Mar 1965)
Fantastic Four	Franklin Richards (Son of Reed Richards & Susan Storm)	Fantastic Four Annual #6 (November 1968)
Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards	Valeria Richards (Daughter of Reed Richards & Susan Storm)	Fantastic Four vol. 3 #54 (June 2002)
Fantastic Four	Lockjaw Puppy (Dog)	Fantastic Four vol.3 #9.
Nick Fury	Dum Dum Dugan	Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963)
Shadowcat	Lockheed (Small Dragon)	Uncanny X-Men #166 (Feb 1983)
Speedball	Niels, Hairball (Cat)	Speedball #1
Spider-Man	Jackpot	Free Comic Book Day Spider-Man: Swing Shift (May 2007)
Spider-Man	Ms. Lion (Dog)	Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends #1
Spider Girl	Scarlet Spider 3 (Felicity Hardy)	Spider-Girl # 46
Taskmaster, Agent X	Sandi Brandenberg	Taskmaster Mini-Series (2002)
Thing, Captain America	Demolition Man aka D-Man	Captain America #328 (April 1987)
Wolverine	Jubilee	Uncanny X-Men #244 (May, 1989)
Young Allies	Whitewash Jones	Young Allies Comics 1941

The first sidekick on the list is Edwin Jarvis who is a butler at Avengers Mansion that in turn is owned and operated by Tony Stark. Tony Stark is of course Iron Man. Jarvis is an obvious clone of Alfred, Batman’s butler, but is much more one dimensional and provides comic relief rather than insight into the super heroes he deals with unlike Alfred. Alfred was a medic during a time of war and may be old but is obviously tough and handles sensitive Batman impersonation missions. Alfred would beat the crap out of Jarvis in any altercation.

Bucky is probably the most famous sidekick in the Marvel universe. Bucky is Captain America’s sidekick from the golden age that was killed in the golden age. In 2010, Bucky was resurrected after more than forty years just to make sure whatever faith readers had in comic book continuity was crushed once and for all so that suspension of disbelief via continuity would be rendered impossible once and for all. Comic sales are down way down. The recession and competition with other media are to blame but decisions like the Bucky resurrection don’t help. Anyway, Captain America is put into suspended animation minutes after Bucky is “blown up” and the guilt Captain America feels upon reawakening in the silver age is a major part of the Captain America story line. Captain America over the last forty years continually demonstrated how the trauma for the death of Bucky affected him mostly in the form of nightmares. Batman has never shown this level of trauma about the deaths of his Robins.

In the first silver age appearance of Captain America (Avengers vol. 1, #1) Captain America runs into a teenager he mistakes for Bucky, Rick Jones. Rick Jones is the side kick of the Hulk but this doesn’t stop him from later becoming Bucky II. The Hulk is not too pleased with this and this leads to altercations between Captain America and the Hulk. The Hulk has a point. Bruce Banner was exposed to gamma ray radiation while saving Rick Jones and became the monster called the Hulk because of Rick Jones. Yeah, Rick Jones owes his life to the Hulk’s alter ego but heck Captain America has wavy blonde hair and also is not a monster, literally, so Rick Jones decides to become Bucky II. Rick Jones is not a very loyal sidekick and becomes Captain Marvel’s sidekick later on. I guess Captain Marvel’s wavy silver hair beat Captain America’s wavy blonde hair. Rick Jones is currently a Hulk type called A-Bomb and is really digging not being a sidekick anymore despite having Hulk monster type problems. Captain America has had other sidekicks beside Bucky I and II including Jack Flag and Jackdraw. Heroes in both the DC and Marvel universe seem to either have slews of sidekicks or no sidekicks. Are sidekicks addictive? For the records there have been several Captain Americas with their Bucky sidekicks but I am only dealing with the Steve Rogers Captain America.

Foggy Nelson is a sidekick of Daredevil. Foggy Nelson is the law partner of Matt Murdock the alter ego of Daredevil. Foggy provided a great deal of comic belief in the beginning but has matured into a more competent brilliant lawyer that is an asset to Matt Murdock. Foggy has an incredible case law memory and might even superior to Matt Murdock as a lawyer but does not have the confidence of Matt and is therefore generally not the lead lawyer. Without Foggy, the law practice of Matt Murdock would have gone down the toilet during his many, Daredevil caused, MIA stints. Foggy Nelson has a paunch and food related jokes are his comic relief contribution.

Deadpool is a hilarious anti-hero that has had several equally hilarious sidekicks including Weasel, Blind Al and Bob, Agent of Hydra. My favorite is Bob, Agent of Hydra. Bob is a parody of henchmen and the number one lesson he learned from Hydra was “hiding behind each other”. Under pressure, Bob tends to shout “Hail Hydra”.

Doctor Strange has and adult Asian manservant from Tibet named Wong. Wong may not know much magic but he is a master martial artist. Wong is fairly subservient compared to other comic book sidekicks. If you do visit Doctor Strange at his Sanctum Santorum in New York then you have to get past Wong first. His role as a literal gatekeeper gives him some power that a lesser servant would not have.

Marvel decided to transform the son Reed Richards and Susan Storm from a typical omega level angst driven mutant to a Calvin type character, as in Calvin and Hobbes, character with great success. Franklin is a side kick to the Fantastic Four that provides a child’s perspective of the Fantastic Four as well as comic relief. Franklin is also a scientific genius who can modify his dad’s super science gadgets but generally his attempts to improve dad’s gadgets lead to disaster. Franklin has his own sidekick, H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot. H.E.R.B.I.E. provides a logical to the point of absurdity perspective to the childish antics of Franklin. H.E.R.B.I.E. constantly tries to convince Franklin H.E.R.B.I.E. to leave his dad’s lab alone but he is ultimately a subordinate that is then forced to try to clean up the mess created by Franklin.

The Hulk got over the loss of Rick Jones and adopted Jim Wilson. Jim Wilson was an inner city, Black teenager that very poignantly died of cancer later. Doctor Strange has an Asian sidekick. The Hulk has an African-American sidekick. The Lone Ranger has a Native American sidekick, Tonto. Does anyone see a pattern here? My next post will be titled DC vs. Marvel: Multicultural Heroes and I will examine the issue of race in the DC and Marvel universes in detail.

In 2009, Marvel untied all the animal sidekicks into a team called the Pet Avengers. The Pet Avengers are a rip off of the Legion of Super Animals over at DC. The Legion of Super Pets was played straight and this was probably a bad decision given the absurdity of the concept. The Pet Avengers is a silly title with lots of comic relief and one of my favorite current titles. I am not sure how far you can go with this concept but so far so good. The members of the Pet Avengers include Redwing a hawk of Falcon, Lockjaw a giant dog that can teleport of the Inhumans, Zabu a saber tooth tiger of Ka-Zar, Lockheed a small dragon that is a sidekick of Shadowcat, Hairball a cat belonging to Speedball and Ms. Lion a dog belonging to Spider-Man. The team includes Throg is a frog with lesser versions of Thor’s powers and is not a sidekick of Thor but a hero among his frog tribe in his own right. The interplay between the animals is what really makes the team work. Krypto and Streaky were a dog and a cat in the same legion but the fact that dogs and cats don’t get along was never really explored. Hairball the cat thinks Ms. Lion is an absolute idiot and worse, a dog! Ms. Lion is the only one on the team that doesn’t have super powers is very much the pampered house dog of Spiderman’s Aunt May. Ms. Lion claims the right to membership based on her sidekick status alone.

The sidekick status of the members is highlighted in one story of Tails of the Pet Avengers: The Dogs of Summer #1. In the story titled“Garbage Grief”, Franklin Richards teams up with the Pet Avengers flanked with his own sidekicks H.E.R.B.I.E. and Puppy. Puppy is a miniature version of Lockjaw complete with his powers of teleportation. In this story Puppy does manage to teleport the Pet Avengers to deal with a giant humanoid garbage creature that Franklin created more or less accidentally. So this is a sidekick crossover albeit on a much smaller scale than the DC Teen Titans/Young Justice crossover. Another treat of this particular issue, is that the origin of Puppy is finally dealt with. Puppy has been a fixture of the Fantastic Four for a while but his origin has not been dealt with until this issue. Turns out Puppy is the grand pup of Lockjaw and is a present of Franklin’s future self to himself in the past. In another issue, Tails of the Pet Avengers #1 has an adventure with Redwing the hawk titled “Birds of a Different Feather”. Redwing the sidekick of Falcon is chased by a pigeon that wants to be a sidekick of Redwing. Redwing refuses this offer at first but the pigeon pulls a masterful guilt trip to change the mind of Redwing.

I also have to mention the Incredible Hercules that ran from 2008 to 2010. Hercules is teamed up with Amadeus Cho. Amadeus Cho is really smart, mutant level smart but Hercules is Hercules! Normally Amadeus Cho, the brainy, sixteen year old, nerdy teenager, would be the sidekick but an argument can be made that Hercules is the sidekick even if Hercules would smash anyone who suggested as much. In one issue Hercules is up against his old enemies the Amazons. Amadeus Cho is captured by the Amazonians. Amadeus Cho is referred to as the eromenos of Hercules (Incredible Hercules #121, 2008) by the Amazons during his captivity. Amadeus Cho is not happy with this appellation at all. This is one of the few issues that points out the obvious, when older men have sixteen year old guys as buddies then there is usually one sort of relationship at work going back to Greek times. This is an intelligent comic book line that turns the sidekick conventions upside down in an extremely funny manner.

The most famous teenage sidekick of Marvel is Bucky but Bucky is not nearly as important to comic book history as Robin. Probably getting killed in the golden age for plus forty years didn’t help the career of Bucky at all. Marvel has other teenage sidekicks like the golden age Toro but all and all Marvel does not have the rooster of well known teenage sidekicks that DC has. DC also wins in terms of teenage sidekick teams. DC has the aforementioned Teen Titans and Young Justice. Marvel has teenage teams including the Young Avengers and the Runaways but they are not sidekick teams but teams of teenage heroes. In many ways Marvel sidestepped the need for teenage sidekicks by making more teenage heroes than DC. Spiderman began his career in high school. The X-Men operate out of Xavier’s Academy which trains teenagers. The New Mutants are teenagers that go to Xavier’s Academy and are not sidekicks. I think overall Marvel may have been smart to make teenage heroes to fulfill many of the teen identification functions of teenage sidekicks.

DC just has a lot more sidekicks than Marvel period. DC has 71 sidekicks on their list. Marvel has 34 sidekicks on their list. Beyond numbers, DC has a rooster of more famous sidekicks especially in the teenage sidekick category. DC and Marvel have pursued different strategic approaches to the use of teenage sidekicks in their respective universes. Marvel, however, is doing great things with animal sidekicks with the Pet Avengers and funny sidekicks like Franklin Richards and H.E.R.B.I.E. Unfortunately, a two year trend does not negate the fact that DC has historically had the most and best sidekicks.

DC wins the sidekick wars!

Answer to DC Sidekick Quiz

1. Stripsey

2. Proty

3. Doiby Dickles

4. ?

5. Streaky?

6. Brute

7. Qwsp

8. Glob

9. Cyrll

10. Mr. Twaky Tawny

11. Zook

12. Ace the Bat Hound

13. Wing

14. ?

15. ?

16. Ilda

17. Skeets

18. ?

19. ?

20. ?

I do wonder if some of the sidekicks I can’t figure out are actual sidekicks in DC comics. Number 5 might be Streaky the Super Cat but looks more like a mouse than a cat.

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http://foxhugh.com/2010/04/06/marvel-vs-dc-weapons/

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DC vs. Marvel: Robots

Posted on April 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

Braniac ponders the God/Sandwich paradox

Introduction

This is the third post in a series dealing with technology in the DC and Marvel universes. The first post dealt with weapons at:

The second post dealt with transportation technologies at:

http://foxhugh.com/2010/04/08/dc-vs-marvel-transportation/

This post deals with robots in the DC and Marvel universes. Robots come in three flavors: good guys, bad guys and funny. Which universe has the coolest good guy robot and which universe has the coolest bad guy robot? Which universe has the funniest robot? I refuse to make a distinction between robots and androids in this post. The terms are used haphazardly in both universes and basically in comic books the only real difference is that the androids are more human looking than the robots. This is fairly superficial distinction and even this is not a consistent factor. In more sophisticated science fiction universes there is some attempt to also distinguish between robots and androids using some quality of sentience rather than mere appearance. Below is a list of DC robots with at least their first appearance in parentheses.

List of DC Robots

Ajax ,Wonder-Man, Superman #163
Aluminium, Metal Men #2
Amazo, The Brave and the Bold #30
Amazon Tin Queen, Metal Men #4, #5
Automan, Robot 32198, Tales of the Unexpected #91
Barium, Metal Men #2
Batman Machine, Detective Comics #224
Batman’s Robot Twin, Detective Comics #239
Batman Robot, Detective Comics #281
Black Widow Robot, Metal Men #17
Bozo the Iron Man, Smash Comics #1
Brainiac, Action Comics #242
Brainiac 12, Superman Vol. 2 #200
Brimstone, Legends #1
C.A.P.D., Computerized Automatic Patrol Dog, Weird War Tales #116
Calcium, Metal Men #2
Carbon Dioxide, Metal Men #10
Chemo, Metal Men #14, #25
Chloroform, Metal Men #10
Cobalt, Metal Men #31
Computo, Adventure Comics #340
Construct, Justice League of America #142
D.A.V.E. –Digital Advanced Villain Emulator, The Batman: Episode #039
Death Metal Men, Metal Men #2
Derek Reston, Ace of Spades, Justice League of America #203
Doctor Bedlam, Mister Miracle Vol. 1 #2
Drone, New Teen Titans Annual Vol. 2 #1
Duke of Oil, Outsiders Vol. 1 #6
Dybbuk, Suicide Squad vol, 1 #45
Electrical Warrior, Electric Warrior Vol. 1 #1
Eradicator, Action Comics Annual #2
Eterno, Action Comics #343
Female Amazon Robots, Metal Men #32
Floating Furies, Metal Men #9
Gas Gang, Metal Men #6
Giant Robot, Tales of the Unexpected #68
G.I. Robot, Star Spangled War Stories #101
Gallium, Metal Men #31
Gold, Showcase #37
Gonzo the Mechanical Bastard, Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #2
Healer, Action Comics #387
Helium, Metal Men #10
Hourman, Android, Justice League of America #12,
Ilda, Star Hawkins, Strange Adventures #114
Indigo, Titans/Young Justice Graduation #1
Kelex, The Man of Steel #1
Kid Amazo, Justice League America Classified #37
Krakko, Weird War Tales #113
Krydel-4, Green Lantern Corps Vol.2 #1
L-Ron, Justice League International #14
Lead, Showcase #37
Living Robots, Mystery in Space #99
Lord Havok, Justice League Europe #15
Man Horse of Hades, Metal Men #19
Manhunters, 1^st Issue Special #5
Mechanical Masters of Rann, Mystery in Space #65
Mekanique, All Star Squadron #58
Mercury, Showcase #37
Metallo, Action Comics #252
Missile Men, Metal Men #1, #12, #54
Mister Atom, Captain Marvel Adventures #78
Osmium, Metal Men #31
Oxygen, Metal Men #10
Platinum, Showcase #37
Plutonium, Metal Men #2
Plutonium Man, Metal Men #45
Pulsar Stargrave, Superboy #223
Red Tornado, Justice League of America #64
Red Volcano, DC Universe #0
Reverse-Flash, The Flash Vol. 2 #134
Robbie the Robot Dog, Star-Spangled Comics #25
Robby Robot, House of Mystery #164
Robin, Young Justice #1000000
Robin Robot, Detective Comics #290
Robo, Superman #132
Robot Cop of Gotham City, Batman #70
Robot Eggs, Strange Adventures #197
Robot Master’s Robots, Superman #152
Robot Juggernauts, Metal Men #9
Robot Raiders, Mystery in Space #53
Robot Renegades, Metal Men #2, #3
Robot Space Ranger, Tales of the Unexpected #73
Robot Town, Strange Adventures #164
Robot Who Lost His Head, Strange Adventures #136
Robot Woman, Wonder Woman #48
Robot Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman #111
Robot Wonder Woman 2, Wonder Woman #137
Robot World of Ancient Rann, Mystery of Space #102
Robot X-1, Strange Adventures #169
Robotica, Legion Worlds #1
RRU-9-2, Guy Gardner #11
Servitor, Kobra #1
Shaggy Man, Justice League of America #45
Shaolin Robot, 52 #6
Silver, Metal Men #31
Skeets, Booster Gold Vol. 1 #1
Skyscraper Robot, Metal Men #13
Sodium, Metal Men #2
Solaris, DC One Million #1
Stel, Green Lantern Vol. 2 #11
Superman Robots
Synthetic Men, Strange Adventures #17
Termite Robots, Metal Men #16
The Metal Mods, Metal Men #26
The Rebel Robot, Metal Men #15
Thor the Thunder Dog, Police Comics #8
Tin, Showcase #37
Tomorrow Woman, Justice League of America #5
Torgola Robot Eater of Metalis, Metal Men #29
Toyman, Action Comics #837
Urthlo, Adventure Comics #300
World Wreckers, Strange Adventures #50
Zirconium, Metal Men #2
Iridium, Metal Men #31

One robot stands out in the DC universe as the ultimate baddie and that’s Brainiac. Brainiac is so famous that the word is now derogatory slang for someone who is too brainy. Brainiac has changed from the golden age and is currently human. Brainiac also changed from being green skinned humanoid with studs in his head and wearing a pink yes pink outfit to being made of metallic silver and looking a lot more robotic. For me the classic Brainiac will always be the green guy with pink tights. This Brainiac went around shrinking cities and putting them in bottles. The guy collected cities! I collected comic books and this guy is collecting cities. How cool is that? One of the cities was Kandor which Superman confiscated and kept in his Fortress of Solitude. Kandor was the source of many, many adventures with the Superman family in the silver age which seem silly now but were great fun when I was a kid. Brainiac also had an indestructible force field that he could project around himself via a belt or around his space ship. Superman could not penetrate this force field and Brainiac was basically impervious to attack from Superman. Brainiac also teamed up with Luthor on and off and of course each one tried to prove he was more brilliant than the other. Brainiac had a twelfth level intellect which I guess is pretty smart.

I do want to mention the Metal Men. The Metal Men were a team of good robots that had their high point in the sixties. The Metal Men included the Gold, Lead, Mercury, Platinum and Tin and they premiered in Showcase #37 but soon got their own title. The one adjective I would use to describe the Metal Men is zany! They were shape shifters and had the personality traits of their respective metal. Mercury was volatile. Lead was steady and so on. Platinum was female and of course was in love with her creator Dr. Magnus. This love was not reciprocated and was an ongoing plot line.

The Metal Men mostly fought other robots which makes no sense whatsoever except that in sixties logic the robot title should have lots of other robots. The Metal Men inhabited their own little corner of DC robot land. The second most famous good robot in the DC universe is the Red Tornado. The Red Tornado is a long standing member of the Justice League of America and spent a lot of time spouting robotic angst about not being human. I really don’t like the Red Tornado at all. The name is stupid. The costume is stupid. The angst rhetoric is forced and not well done. The Metal Men win!

DC has used robots for comic relief a great deal. The Metal Men were basically a funny tile if you consider zany to be a shade of funny. DC did have at least one ongoing character that was a funny robot. Star Hawkins was bumbling private eye of the future who first appeared in Strange Adventures #114 in 1960. Ilda was his robot secretary and the brains of the team. Ilda provided consistent comic relief in a manner similar to Rosie the Robot in The Jetsons. As I have pointed out in other posts in this series, DC has a much greater willingness to mix genres for extremely silly effect. This isn’t even the silliest DC private eye title of this period. That honor belongs to Detective Chimp. These silly early silver age DC titles do not age well.

You have not one but three robot dogs: C.A.P.D. Robbie the Robot Dog and Thor the Thunder Dog. Robot Man of course has to have Robbie the Robot Dog instead of a regular dog. Why? No reason just more DC zaniness. Robbie can talk and Robot Man and Robbie had some very surreal conversations. L-Ron is a robot that works for the Justice League and is obsequious to the point of hilarity. Skeets is the side kick of Booster Gold and is not as funny as L-Ron but has his moments. L-Ron wins the funny robot category in the DC universe.

There are some pretty powerful robots in the DC universe including Amazo, who has all the powers of the original Justice League of America but can absorb more powers beyond that. The Shaggy Man is another scary robot who has vast strength and vast recuperative powers and is a mindless fighter who can take on the whole Justice League at the same time.

For sheer weirdness, G.I. Robot is probably the winner in the DC universe. G.I. Robot is a robot that runs around in standard G.I. gear. This is a mix of science fiction and the war comic genre. Not a lot of companies have the guts to mix these two genres and perhaps this is just as well.

The winner of the best DC evil robot is clearly Brainiac. The winner of best DC robot hero is not a hero but the Metal Men group as a whole. The funniest robot is L-Ron.

List of Marvel Robots

Acidroid, Earth-616, Cable #65
Adam II, What If #4
Adap-Tor, Earth-616, Iron Man #217
Agent Cheesecake,Earth-616, She-Hulk Vol. 2 #15
Air-Walker, Automaton, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #120
Albert, Earth-5211, Exiles #85
Albert, Earth-616, Wolverine Vol. 2 #37
Alchemoid, Earth-616, Captain America #187
Alex Ellis, Earth-616, Amazing Spider Man Annual #27
Alkhema, Earth-616, Avengers West Coast #90
Alpha, Earth-616, Marvel Team-Up #129
Alpha Ray, Earth-616, Storm Breaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill #1
Analyzer As Recorder Thor #132, As Analyzer Thor #422
Android Andy, Earth-238, Daredevils #7
Android Man, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #79
Aquarius, LMD, Earth-616,
Arch-E-5912, Earth-616, World War Hulk: Front Line #1
Aries, LMD, Earth-616
Arsenal, Earth-1610, Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #4
Arsenal, Robot, Earth-616, Iron Man #114
Arthur Zix, Earth-616, She-Hulk Vol. 2 #19
Assassin, Mimeyoshi, Earth-616
Avalon, Caretaker, Earth-616, Thor #219
Awesome Android, Earth-10102, Exiles Vol. 2 #4
Awesome Android, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #15
B’nee and C’cll, Earth-616, X-Men #137
Bastion, Earth-616, X-Men #5
Baymax, Earth-616, Sunfire and Big Hero Six #1
Behemoth, Atlantean, Earth-616, Tales to Astonish #77
Benedict, Inner Guard,, Earth-616, Avenger #398
Bi-Beast, Original, Earth-616, Incredible Hulk #169
Big Brain, Earth-982, What If Vol. 2 #105
Billy Bird, Earth-616, Marvel Comics Presents #34
Biotron, Earth-616, Micronauts #1
Boak, Earth-4935, X-Factor #67
C-Gram, Earth-928, Ghost Rider 2099 #2
Cancer, LMD, Earth-616
Cavalier, Earth-616, All this and World War II #1
Centrally Located Organic Computer, Cloc, Earth-616,
Cerebrus, Earth-68091, Iron Man #5
Chief Examiner, Earth-616, Questprobe #1
Colosso, Earth-616, X-Men #22
Conscience, Earth-616, Marvel Comics Presents #19
Conserve And Protect, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #554
Cornfed, Earth-616, Livewires #1
Crimson Sage, Earth-9997, Earth X #1
Cyberex, Earth-616, Captain Marvel #8
Cybortrons, Earth-616
Cyclops, A-Chiltarian Robot,, Earth-616, Tales to Astonish #46
Danger, Earth-616, Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #9
Dark-Crawler, Incredible Hulk #126
David Jenkins, Livewires #1
Deadeye, Starriors, Starriors #1
Death’s Head, UK #113
Death’s Head, Lupex, Death Head #1
Death Metal, Earth-8410, Death³ #1
Deathlok, Astonishing Tales #25
Destructon, Destruction #100
Diamondback LMD
Doctor Sun, Earth-616, Tomb of Dracula #16
Dominus, The Uncanny X-Men #21
Doom-Knight
Doombot, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #5
Doomsday Man, Earth-616, Silver Surfer #13
Dragon Man, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #35
Dragorr, Earth-616, Tales to Astonish #94
Dreadnought, Strange Tales # 154
Dynamic Man, Earth-616, Mystic Comics #1
Egghead, Earth-616, Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1
Electro, Robot,Earth-616, Captain America #78
Elektro, Earth-616, Tales of Suspense #13
Eleven, Earth-4935, Cable #1
Elsie Dee, Earth-5211, Exiles #85
Elsie Dee, Earth-616, Wolverine Vol. 2 #37
Eradikator 6, Earth-616, Punisher Annual #6
Exterminators, Earth-616, Thor #220
F.A.C.A.D.E., Earth-616, Web of Spiderman #113
Factor-X, Earth-616, Nova #23
Fixer, Strange Tales #141
Flexo, Earth-616, Mystic Comics #1
Frankenstein’s Monster, Silver Surfer #7
Fury, Earth-238
Galactus’ Cat, Earth-616
Gargantus, Tales of Suspense #40
Gawain, Earth-616, Knights of Pendragon Vol. 2 #1
Ghost Rider 2099, Ghost Rider 2099 #1
Godseye, Earth-616, Incredible Hulk Vol. 2, #89
Gol-19, Earth-616, Bishop the Last X-Man #7
Gothic Lolita, Earth-616, Livewires #1
Growing Man, Earth-6311, Thor #140
Guardian Robots
Guns Gummy, Earth-616, Marvel Comics Presents #34
H.E.R.B.I.E, Fantastic Four #209
Hardwire, Robot, Earth-616,
Hate-Monger, Psycho-Man’s Creation, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #279
Hollowpoint Ninja, Earth-616, Livewires #1
Homebrew, Livewires #1
H.U.B.E.R.T., Fantastic Four #38
Hugo Longride, Earth-616,
Hulk, Arcade Robot, Earth-616, Eternals #14
Hulk, Robot,, Earth-616, Incredible Hulk #4
Human Torch, Jim Hammond, Marvel Comics #1
I.S.A.A.C., Earth-616, Iron Man #55
Invader-1, Earth-616, Avengers Vol. 3 #83
Invincible Robot, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #85
It the Living Colossus, Tales of Suspense #14
Jack Rollins, LMD, Earth-616, Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #5
Jahf, Earth-616, X-Men #108
Jocasta, Earth-616, Avenger #162
Jocasta, Earth-943
Katherine Pryde, Earth-811
Klag Tales of Suspense #21
Leo, LMD, Earth-616,
Libra, LMD, Earth-616,
Life Model Decoy
Livewires
Living Brain
LYrate Lifeform Approximation, Earth-928, Spider-Man 2099 #11
M-11, Earth-10102, Exiles Vol.2 #44
M-11, Earth-616, Menace #11
M-21, Earth-616, Agents of Atlas Vol. 2 #44
Machine Man, 2ZP45-9-X-51, Earth-10102, Exiles Vol. 2 #3,
Machine Man, Earth-2149, Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #1
Machine Man, 2ZP45-9-X-51, Earth-616, 2001, A Space Odyssey #8,
Machine Man, 2ZP45-9-X-51, Earth-8410, Machine Man Vol. 2 #1
Machine Teen, Machine Teen #1
Machinesmith, Marvel Two-In-One #47
Macro-Men
Magneto, Arcade Robot, Earth-616, X-Men #124
Magus, Technarch,, Earth-616, New Mutants #8
Mainframe, Earth-982, A-Next #1
Mammoth, Hydra, Earth-616,
Man-Slayer, Earth-616, Captain Marvel #18
Mandroid, Kree,, Earth-616
Manipulator, Earth-616, Avengers #178
Maria Petrova, Earth-50701, Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects #2
Master Mold, Earth-5700, Weapon X Days of the Future Now #1
Master Mold, Earth-616, X-Men #15
Mastermind, Computer, Earth-616,
Maxis, Earth-93060, All New Exiles #8
Mechadoom
Mechano, Earth-616, Strange Tales #86
Megalith, Incredible Hulk #275
Mekkanoid, Thor #482
Mekkans, Fantastic Four #91
Mendel Stromm, Earth-616,
Metalloid, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #179
Micro-Sentry, Marvel Fanfare #114
MK-9, Earth-616
Mogul, Earth-616, Incredible Hulk #127
MX39147, Earth-616
N-ME, Earth-93060
Nanny, Magneto’s Robot, Earth-616, X-Men #112
Nicole, Robot, Earth-616, X Factor Vol. 3 #16
Nimrod, Earth-811, Uncanny X-Men #191
Number Two, Sentinel, Earth-616, X-Men #59
Omega, Android, Earth-616,
P.L.A.T.O., Earth-616,
Pacifier Robot, Fantastic Four #57
Paradox, AI, Earth-616,
Pisces, Male LMD, Earth-616,
Prime Mover, Earth-616, Strange Tales #167
Prosh, Earth-616, X-Factor #24
Protector, Rhunian Android, Thor #219
Punisher, Galactus’ Robot, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #49
Pyronanos
Quasimodo, Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organism, Earth-10102, Exiles Vol. 2 #4
Quasimodo, Earth-616, Fantastic Four Annual #4
Recorder, Earth-616,
Red Ronin, UJ1-DX, Earth-616, Loners #5
Remnants, Earth-616, Beta Bill – The Green of Eden #1
Replica Model X-2, Thor Vol. 2 #9
Replica Model X-3, Earth-616, Thor #141
Robot X, Amazing Adventures #4
Robota, Planet Terry #1
Robotron, Dazzler #4
Roger Bochs, Box, Earth-616, Alpha Flight #1
Rooster Cockburn, Earth-616, Marvel Comics Presents #34
S.H.I.V.A., Earth-616, Wolverine Vol. 2 #50
Sagittarius, LMD, Earth-616,
Scavenger, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #69
Scorpio, Android,, Earth-616, West Coast Avengers #1
Seeker, Android,, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #144
Sentinel Mk I, Earth-616, X-Men #14
Sentinel Mk II, Earth-616, X-Men #57
Sentinel Mk III, Earth-616, X-Men #98
Sentinel Mk IV, Earth-616, Uncanny X-Men #51
Sentinel Mk V, Earth-616, New Mutants #2
Sentinel Mk VI, Earth-616, Alpha Flight #43
Sentinel Omega Class, Earth-811, The Uncanny X-Men #14
Sentinels, Earth-9997, Earth X #0
Sentry, Kree, Fantastic Four #64
Sentry 213, Earth-616
Sentry 459, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #64
Sentry 9168, Earth-616
Servo-Guards, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #84
Ship, X-Factor Vol.1 #19
Sikorsky, X-Men #156
SJ3RX, Earth-10102, Exiles Vol. 2 #44
SJ3RX, Earth-616, Godzilla #6
Skeletron, Earth-616, Quasar #53
Skrull-X, Earth-616,
Sleeper, Nazi Robot, Earth-616, Tales of Suspense #72
Southpaw, Loonies,, Earth-616, Marvel Comics Presents #34
Spider-Slayers, Amazing Spider-Man #25
Sputnik, Captain America #352
Social Butterfly, Livewires #1
Stem Cell, Livewires #1
Starktech 9, Earth-616, Mighty Avengers #2
Super-Adaptoid, Earth-10102, Exiles Vol. 2 #4
Super-Adaptoid, Earth-616, Tales of Suspense #82
Super-Humanoid, Earth-616, Incredible Hulk #116
Supremor, Captain Marvel #46
Swarmbot, Fantastic Four #20
Tabula Rasa, Earth-Tabula, Avengers #359
Tailgunner, Earth-616, Marvel Comics Present #34
Tara, Avengers Vol. 3 #83
Taurus, LMD, Earth-616,
Temujai, Earth-616, Yellow Claw #2
Ten-Thirtifor, Earth-616, Maximum Security Annual #8
TESS-One, Earth-616, Captain America #8
The Ham, Earth-616, Marvel Comics Presents #34
The Living Brain, Spider-Man #8
Thermal Man, Earth-616, Thor #168
Time-bot, Thor #409
Tomazooma, Robot, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #80
Tommy, Sleeper, Earth-616, Plasmer #1
Torgo, Mekkan, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #91
Tracer, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1
TransHuman ROBot, Earth-616, Fantastic Four #311
Tri-Sentinel, Earth-616, Amazing Spider-Man #329
Ultimo, Earth-616, Tales of Suspense #76
Ultron, Earth-10102, Exiles Vol. 2 #3
Ultron, Earth-1610, Ultimates Vol. 2 #6
Ultron 8, Earth-90210, Wolverine Vol. 3 #67
Unit, Earth-616, S.W.O.R.D. #1
Victor Mancha, Earth-616, Runaways Vol. 2 #1
Virgo, LMD, Earth-616,
Vision, Earth-161, X-Men Forever Vol. 2 #1
Vision, Earth-2149, Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #1
Vision, Earth-616, Avengers #57
Vision, Earth-691
Vision, Earth-932, Avengers #359
Vision, Gah Lak Tus, Earth-1610, Ultimate Spider-Man #86
Volton, Earth-616, Invaders Vol. 2 #1
VOR/TEX, Earth-616
Vostok, Earth-616
Walkabout, Earth-616, Marvel: The Lost Generations #12
Walking Stiletto
Warhawk, Earth-616, Ms. Marvel #12
Warrior Robot, Fantastic Four #85
Watchtower, Earth-616, Wolverine Vol. 2 #154
Widget
Wild Sentinels, Earth-616, New X-Men #114
X, Amazing Fantasy #4
X.E.R.O., Earth-616,
Zero, Earth-4935, New Mutants #86

Some of the top evil robots in the Marvel universe include the Sentinels, Ultron and the Super-Adaptoid. Probably the most powerful evil robot is Super-Adaptoid. The Super-Adaptoid is a clear clone of Amazo. The Super-Adaptoid absorbs the powers of the Avengers. A common what if battle on bullentin boards is the Super-Adaptoid versus Amazo which is basically an extension of the Avengers versus JLA what if battle? The Super-Adaptoid while a lot of fun visually, due to all his super powers, doesn’t have much in the way of characterization.

Ultron does not have this problem! Henry Pym, Giant-Man, Yellow Jacket, etc. is the creator of Ultron. Ultron is one scary looking robot who is made out of adamantium, an indestructible metal, and can project massive energy bolts. Ultron may be tough looking but he is a big softie at heart and even creates his own robot mate called Jocasta. Jocasta’s mind was based on the brain patterns of the Wasp, the wife of his “father” Henry Pym. Jocasta is a robot copy of Ultron’s “mother”. Ultron is filled with Oedipal rage towards his creator. Jocasta rejects the love of Ultron because she doesn’t like meglomaniacal sociopaths who want to destroy all organic life on Earth. What a picky lady! Ultron is no quitter when it comes to the game of love and creates a second robot lover called Alkhema and was more ruthless than Jocasta but ended up turning on Ultron as well. Poor Ultron!

Poor Ultron!

The Sentries are created to hunt down mutants and actually there are different models with vastly different power levels. The Sentinels often try to capture mutants so they have all sorts of gadgets for this purpose including gas, nets, cables, you name it. The Sentinels have probably appeared in more issues than all other evil Marvel robots put together. The Sentinels are an interesting plot device but have zero personality with very few exceptions. The Master Mold was kind of an individual. There was the Sentinel with a big 2 on his chest so he’s named Sentinel 2. Sentinel 2 appeared in Avengers # 104 and was mutated when he flew towards the Sun. A batch of Sentinels had decided that the source of mutation was the Sun so they attacked the Sun! No one said the Sentinels were geniuses. That mutated Sentinel was destroyed by his fellow sentries when they realized he was a mutant of sorts.

There is Nimrod who is an advanced Sentinel from an alternate future that takes on a human identity and starts to grow more human. Nimrod and Master Mold merge to create Bastion and an overly complicated plot line, the great weakness of Marvel plotlines. However, all in all the Sentinel are a mindless army that is dangerous precisely due to their simple cognitions that often lead to draconian solutions. I love the Sentinel but just find Ultron more interesting. Ultron wins the evil robot title in the Marvel universe.

The top two good guy robots in the Marvel universe are the original Human Torch and the Vision. The Human Torch was huge during the Golden Age and current comic book readers are probably not aware of this. The fist important comic book crossover was a battle between the Human Torch and Namor the Submariner in Marvel Mystery #9 back in 1940. This is of course a fire versus water theme. The android Human Torch came back in the silver age in Fantastic Four Annual #4. Despite this reappearance the android Human Torch is nowhere near as popular as he once was.

Probably the most famous robot of the current Marvel universe is the Vision who is a member of the Avengers. The Vision was probably created by the same scientist, Phineas Horton, who created the Human Torch but this plotline keeps changing. The Vision had a long running affair with the mutant the Scarlet Witch. There was lot of angst in the relationship and Quicksilver, the brother of the Scarlet Witch, and also a mutant, was extremely vocal about his opinion that the relationship was an abomination. There is of course the irony that Quicksilver is a target of anti-mutant prejudice but this does not stop him from being prejudiced against robots.

I will mention that the Human Torch and the Vision are both referred to as androids probably because they are pretty human looking especially the Human Torch. The Vision had bright red skin and currently is ghostly white so, minus make up, is not passing for a human. The Vision used to be chock full of all sorts of deep emotions and existential angst but is currently lacking in emotion much to the chagrin of the Scarlet Witch. The Vision wins the good robot title in the Marvel universe.

There aren’t as many funny and/or zany robots in the Marvel universe as in the DC universe. There is the Humanoid Experimental Robot B-Type Integrated Electronics or H.E.R.B.I.E. for short created by Reed Richards who provided some comic relief in the Fantastic Four title and that’s about it. There isn’t even one robot dog in the Marvel universe and maybe that’s a good thing. Most of the humor in the Fantastic Four title involving H.E.R.B.I.E. is slap stick rather than verbal and not that funny.

H.E.R.B.I.E. was hilarious in the title Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius. The art was cartoony and Franklin, the son of Reed Richards was a very Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes, type character. H.E.R.B.I.E. plays the serious nanny trying to keep Franklin out of trouble with little success. The Awesome Android provided comic relief in volume two of the She-Hulk that was a funny title overall. However, H.E.R.B.I.E. in Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius is funnier and of course H.E.R.B.I.E. is one of the major characters in this title versus the peripheral role of the Awesome Android who changes his name to Awesome Andy. While the title She-Hulk is very funny, Awesome Andy isn’t necessarily all that funny. H.E.R.B.I.E. wins the funny robot contest in the Marvel Universe.

Conclusion

Brainiac is one of the top super villains of all time and clearly wins the bad robot category. A fight between Brainiac and Ultron would be a lot of fun to watch and is the subject of at least one online post (http://www.electricferret.com/fights/issue_186.htm). Who wins the good robot category? The Metal Men have a zaniness that the Vision does not but they are definitely an acquired taste and the Metal Men comic book was always a second rate title. The Vision is an important member of the Avengers. The Avengers are a first rate title. The Vision wins the good robot category.

I do want to mention that the Vision and the Red Tornado are both red and androids. The Vision belongs to the Avengers. The Red Tornado belongs to the DC equivalent of the Avengers, the Justice League. Is this a coincidence? I think not.

L-Ron is funny but H.E.R.B.I.E. is funnier. Marvel wins the good robot and funny robot contests and wins overall. DC won the weapons and transportation posts so this is a comeback for Marvel. I would make another observation about the role of robots in the DC and Marvel universes.

Marvel has a lot more robots than DC! DC has 114 robots. Marvel has 257 robots! I counted all sorts of one-shot robots from the Metal Men title and the DC count was still much lower than the Marvel count. My after the count theory is as follows. Marvel has a consistent multiverse, so many robots get double or triple counts depending on which universe in the Marvel multiverse they appeared. DC’s multiverse is a total mess! Don’t get me started.

I think the idea of multiple universes to explain away continuity lapses was a great invention that was started by DC but DC decided to use a Crisis of the Infinite Earths comic book series to get rid of the other multiverses and create one universe. That might have been ok but they then created a brand new 52 system that assumes there are only 52 universes. There is also something called Zero Hour, and something else called hypertime. I almost vowed to never ever read another DC comic book after the Crisis of Infinite Earth fiasco but let’s face it I am addicted to comic books and need overpowers reason in the long run. The way DC has handled their multiverses has led to a destruction of DC universe continuity.

Continuity leads to suspension of disbelief!
Suspension of disbelief leads to much greater reading pleasure!
Greater reading pleasure leads to greater comic book sales!

I urge all comic book writers to repeat the above three sentences at least once a day in a mantra like manner! Plus there are comic book geeks like myself that love their ability to explain the history of a comic book universe and this is a task that is largely impossible with the DC universe. I would also like to make a comparison of how DC and Marvel have treated robots in their respective universes from a historical perspective.

In the golden age robots were treated in a similar manner by both DC and Marvel. Jack Kirby created a slew of monsters in the golden age before the success of the silver age Spider-Man and many of these monsters are robots that have ended up on the list Marvel robot list. Even the one-shot robots had great names and you remembered them. The Marvel golden age monster stories often had a Twilight Zone style ironic twist at the end that stuck with you after you read the story. Marvel titles that featured monsters include Tales of the Unexpected, Strange Tales and Amazing Fantasy. Amazing Fantasy was a title that was pure monsters until Amazing Fantasy #15. Amazing Fantasy #15 is the issue in which Spider-Man premiered and this was the beginning of the end of Marvel’s golden age monster stories. Long before everything was reprinted in graphic novels, Marvel honored their golden age monsters in the silver age with the Fantasy Masterpieces title that I collected avidly having missed the golden age due to my age.

There were plenty of one-shot robots in the equivalent DC titles Strange Adventures, Tales of the Unexpected and Mystery in Space that are on the DC robot list but even their inclusion in my DC robot list did not change the numbers that much. DC and Marvel in the golden age treated robots in a similar manner. Overall, the robot stories of Marvel, especially those by Jack Kirby, were superior to those in DC in the golden age. However, in both universes in the golden age, robots were one-shot characters limited to certain omnibus titles with an ironic twist at the end but things changed in the silver age.

In the silver age, Marvel developed over reaching themes using robots that DC does not have even now. Overall, humans in the Marvel universe see robots as the equalizer in their dealings with superhumans. The Marvel universe uses robots a lot more as a tool of government. Marvel assumes that the relationship between government and superhumans will be antagonistic. Robots are a major tool of the government to combat superhumans in the Marvel Universe.

The Sentinels versus mutants storyline is a giant one in the Marvel universe that has no equivalent in the DC universe. There is even a little retcon pre-Sentinel history. TESS-One is a robot created by the US government to fight super soldiers like Captain America near the end of 1945. The right hand of the government creates super soldiers and the left hand of the government creates the robot contingency plan to destroy them if they get out of hand. . S.H.I.E.L.D uses Life Model Decoys (LMDs) to infiltrate and spy on enemies but in at least one storyline the LMDs turn on S.H.I.E.L.D because they are tools without conscious who can be controlled by others. Agent Cheesecake is a quite gorgeous LMD that goes the extra mile and seduces targets! Agent Cheesecake is probably the sexiest comic book robot and maybe the sexiest robot period.

Agent Cheesecake

You just have to love Marvel’s paranoid vision of the world! This use of robots by government includes alien governments. The Kree are an intergalactic empire and their use of robotic Sentries as immortal sentries at the peripheries of their empire, where a Kree humanoid base is not practical i.e. Earth, is also a major storyline that has no equivalent in the DC universe.

All in all, the Marvel universe has a more developed thematic way of dealing with robots than the DC universe. What makes robots special? Obedience and functional immortality! They are the perfect servants of the state that needs obedient servants that can mimic the functional immortality of the state. Leaders come and go but the goals of the state can be enforced in the long run via robots. Robots are also tool of state whose obedience and immortality can be the downfall of the governments that create them. The Sentries in alternate Marvel time lines often outlive the US government that created them and enforce the Mutant Registration Act in a draconian manner that is ultimately harmful to humans and not just mutants.

This idea of technology out of control is of course a major science fiction theme. I don’t think it’s just science fiction anymore. The US government seriously looked at a Star Wars ballistic system that would have had to operate at the speed of light to be practical and humans and their command, control and communications systems (C3) cannot operate at this speed. The C3 of Star Wars would have had to been relegated to computer systems. Since the Star Wars system is basically defensive that’s ok but sooner or later someone would have decided, well heck why stop there and get rid of that obsolete football the Prez carries and hand the whole shebang to the computers. I don’t worry too much about Sentries over even Skynet, of the Terminator movie series, but I do worry about a computer in the future with bad code that starts WW III due to a glitch. Our technology is moving ahead much faster than our international social systems and eventually we will go the way of the dinosaurs. Bigger computers are great but we also need wiser minds to control those computers.

I think DC is still stuck in a very fifties usage of robots where robots are a novelty and more modern themes of robots as out of control technology due to social rather than novelty reasons is absent. Individual robots go haywire in the DC universe but the idea that social systems such as the government are haywire and create haywire robots as a result is not explored. The robot as novelty was highlighted in DC’s Metal Men. I love the Metal Men! However, the Metal Men are totally dated. The way Marvel uses robots is just a lot more interesting that the way than how DC does. This is my third post comparing technology in DC and Marvel and I want to make an overall observation.

Marvel treats technology in a more consistent thematic manner. Iron Man’s armor leads to the Armor Wars. Mutants are treated with a consistent pseudo science genetic “Gene X” explanation. Adamantium, a super metal, is used consistently to create many super weapons. Robots as institutional servants and the plotlines that follow from this idea are repeated. The government continues trying to create super soldiers after the success of Captain America and the Weapon X program that creates Wolverine and many other characters is the result.

DC treats technology in a much more haphazard manner. Technologies are created for one issue and never seen again. There are far fewer overreaching storylines in the DC universe that tie the different technologies together. Technology has more continuity in the Marvel universe than the DC universe! Again!

Continuity leads to suspension of disbelief!
Suspension of disbelief leads to much greater reading pleasure!
Greater reading pleasure leads to greater comic book sales!

I think whatever the results of individual posts in this series, Marvel treats technology in a superior manner compared to DC.

My other website at:

Other DC vs. Marvel Posts

WereVerse Universe Baby!

http://foxhugh.com/2010/04/06/marvel-vs-dc-weapons/

Tagged 1st Issue Special #5, 2001, 2ZP45-9-X-51, 52 #6, A Space Odyssey #8, A-Chiltarian Robot, A-Next #1, Ace of Spades, Acidroid, Action Comics #242, Action Comics #252, Action Comics #837, Action Comics Annual #2, Adam II, Adap-Tor, Adventure Comics #300, Adventure Comics#340, Agent Cheesecake, Agents of Atlas Vol. 2 #44, AI, Air-Walker, Ajax, Albert, Alchemoid, Alex Ellis, Alkhema, All New Exiles #8, All Star Squadron #58, All this and World War II #1, Alpha, Alpha Flight #1, Alpha Flight #43, Alpha Ray, Aluminium, Amazing Adventures #4, Amazing Fantasy #4, Amazing Spider Man Annual #27, Amazing Spider-Man #25, Amazing Spider-Man #329, Amazo, Amazon Tin Queen, Analyzer, Android, Android Andy, Android Man, Aquarius, Arcade Robot, Arch-E-5912, Aries, Arsenal, Arthur Zix, Assassin, Astonishing Tales #25, Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #9, Atlantean, Automan, Automaton, Avalon, Avenger #162, Avenger #398, Avengers #178, Avengers #359, Avengers #57, Avengers Vol. 3 #83, Avengers West Coast #90, Awesome Android, Awesome Andy, B'nee and C'cll, Barium, Bastion, Baymax, Behemoth, Benedict, Beta Bill – The Green of Eden #1, Bi-Beast, Big Brain, Billy Bird, Biotron, Bishop the Last X-Man #7, Black Widow Robot, Boak, Booster Gold vol. 1 #1, Box, Bozo the Iron Man, Brainiac, Brainiac 12, Brimstone, C-Gram, C.A.P.D., Cable #1, Cable #65, Calcium, Cancer, Captain America #187, Captain America #352, Captain America #78, Captain America #8, Captain Marvel #18, Captain Marvel #46, Captain Marvel #8, Captain Marvel Adventures #78, Carbon Dioxide, Caretaker, Cavalier, Centrally Located Organic Computer, Cerebrus, Chemo, Chloroform, Cloc, Cobalt, Colosso, Computer, Computerized Automatic Patrol Dog, Computo, Conscience, Conserve And Protect, Construct, Cornfed, Crimson Sage, Cyberex, Cybortrons, Cyclops, D.A.V.E., Danger, Daredevils #7, Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1, Dark-Crawler, David Jenkins, Dazzler #4, DC One Million #1, DC Universe #0, DC vs. Marvel, Deadeye, Death Head #1, Death Metal, Death Metal Men, Death's Head, Death3 #1, Deathlok, Derek Reston, Destruction #100, Destructon, Diamondback, Digital Advanced Villain Emulator, Doctor Bedlam, Doctor Sun, Dominus, Doom-Knight, Doombot, Doomsday Man, Dragon Man, Dragorr, Dreadnought, Drone, Duke of Oil, Dybbuk, Dynamic Man, Earth X #0, Earth X #1, Earth-10102, Earth-161, Earth-1610, Earth-2149, Earth-238, Earth-4935, Earth-50701, Earth-5211, Earth-5700, Earth-616, Earth-6311, Earth-68091, Earth-691, Earth-811, Earth-8410, Earth-90210, Earth-928, Earth-93060, Earth-932, Earth-943, Earth-982, Earth-9997, Earth-Tabula, Egghead, Electric Warrior vol. 1 #1, Electrical Warrior, Electro, Elektro, Eleven, Elsie Dee, Eradicator, Eradikator 6, Eternals #14, Exiles #85, Exiles Vol. 2 #3, Exiles Vol. 2 #4, Exiles Vol.2 #44, Exterminators, F.A.C.A.D.E., Factor-X, Fantastic Four #120, Fantastic Four #144, Fantastic Four #15, Fantastic Four #179, Fantastic Four #20, Fantastic Four #209, Fantastic Four #279, Fantastic Four #311, Fantastic Four #35, Fantastic Four #38, Fantastic Four #49, Fantastic Four #5, Fantastic Four #554, Fantastic Four #57, Fantastic Four #64, Fantastic Four #69, Fantastic Four #79, Fantastic Four #80, Fantastic Four #84, Fantastic Four #85, Fantastic Four #91, Fantastic Four Annual #4, Female Amazon Robots, Fixer, Flexo, Floating Furies, Frankenstein's Monster, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1, Fury, G.I. 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154, Strange Tales #141, Strange Tales #167, Strange Tales #86, Suicide Squad vol, Sunfire and Big Hero Six #1, Super-Adaptoid, Super-Humanoid, Superboy #223, Superman #163, Superman Robots, Superman vol. 2 #200, Supremor, Swarmbot, Tabula Rasa, Tailgunner, Tales of Suspense #13, Tales of Suspense #14, Tales of Suspense #21, Tales of Suspense #40, Tales of Suspense #72, Tales of Suspense #76, Tales of Suspense #82, Tales of the Unexpected #91, Tales to Astonish #46, Tales to Astonish #77, Tales to Astonish #94, Tara, Taurus, Technarch, Temujai, Ten-Thirtifor, Termite Robots, TESS-One, The Batman: Episode #039, The Brave and the Bold #30, The Flash vol. 2 #134, The Ham, The Living Brain, The Man of Steel #1, The Metal Mods, The Rebel Robot, The Uncanny X-Men #14, The Uncanny X-Men #21, Thermal Man, Thor #132, Thor #140, Thor #141, Thor #168, Thor #219, Thor #220, Thor #409, Thor #422, Thor #482, Thor the Thunder Dog, Thor Vol. 2 #9, Time-bot, Tin, Titans/Young Justice Graduation #1, Tomazooma, Tomb of Dracula #16, Tommy, Tomorrow Woman, Torgo, Torgola Robot Eater of Metalis, Toyman, Tracer, TransHuman ROBot, Tri-Sentinel, UJ1-DX, UK #113, Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #4, Ultimate Spider-Man #86, Ultimates Vol. 2 #6, Ultimo, Ultron, Ultron 8, Uncanny X-Men #191, Uncanny X-Men #51, Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #2, Unit, Urthlo, Victor Mancha, Virgo, Vision, Volton, VOR/TEX, Vostok, Walkabout, Walking Stiletto, Warhawk, Warrior Robot, Watchtower, Weapon X Days of the Future Now #1, Web of Spiderman #113, Weird War Tales #113, Weird War Tales #116, West Coast Avengers #1, What If #4, What If Vol. 2 #105, Widget, Wild Sentinels, Wolverine Vol. 2 #154, Wolverine Vol. 2 #37, Wolverine Vol. 2 #50, Wolverine Vol. 3 #67, Wonder-Man, World War Hulk: Front Line #1, X, X Factor Vol. 3 #16, X-Factor #24, X-Factor #67, X-Factor Vol.1 #19, X-Men #108, X-Men #112, X-Men #124, X-Men #137, X-Men #14, X-Men #15, X-Men #156, X-Men #22, X-Men #5, X-Men #57, X-Men #59, X-Men #98, X-Men Forever Vol. 2 #1, X.E.R.O., Yellow Claw #2, Young Justice #1000000, Zero, Zirconium

DC vs. Marvel: Transportation

Posted on April 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

The most important category of objects in the comic book universe of DC and Marvel has to be the weapons. I look at this topic at:

I would argue that the second most important category of objects in the DC and Marvel comic book universe are objects of transportation. Superheroes fight supervillains and weapons are needed to do this. Unfortunately for superheroes, supervillains are often a cowardly lot that will flee with the loot rather than fight. Some warrior supervillains like Doomsday will stand and fight Superman but many supervillains try to flee Superman. This means the superhero needs a speedy mode of transport to catch the supervillain and the supervillain wants a mode of speedy transportation to escape. Plus when a crime occurs, the superhero needs to show up at the scene of the crime in the first place. Last but not least, most superheroes patrol anything from a sector of a galaxy, Green Lanterns, to a section of city, Daredevil and Hell’s Kitchen, and need a way of getting around.

In other science fiction universe there is a “vehicle” category but comic books are more speculative fiction than science fiction and some of the most iconic and important forms of transport only vaguely fit even the most general definition of vehicle. This post will look at vehicles but also discuss other objects that provide transportation. Does DC or Marvel have the coolest objects of transportation?

DC Transportation

Below is a list of objects of transportation in the DC universe.

Adam Strange’s Jetpack
Alpha Centurion’s Pax Romana
Ambush Bug’s Teleport Suit
Batboat
Batcycle
Batmobile
Batplane
Birds of Prey – Aerie One
Birds of Prey – Aerie Two
Black Manta’s Sea Saucer
Black Manta’s Walker
Blackhawk Planes
Blue Beetle’s Bug
Blue Tracer
Boom Tube
Booster Mobile
Brains Submarine
Braniac’s Skull Ship
Braniac’s Star Ship
Brontadon (Ship)
Catwoman’s Catmobile
Catwoman’s Catplane
Challenger SST
Clockincopter
Cluster Ship
Cometeer
Craddock Carriage
Di’ib
Doomsday Ship
Eye of Zared
Fiddler’s Fiddle Car
Flash’s Cosmic Threadmill
Flying Fish
Flying Sundial
Fokker Dr. I
Gentleman’s Horse
Gibel Ship
Golden Knight Flying Horse
Gorandian Battle Tripod
Gorandian Submarine
Green Arrow’s Arrowcar
Green Arrow’s Arrowplane
Green Lantern Ring
Grumman XF5F
Gyrosub
Haunted Tank
Hawkman’s Wings
Hourman’s Timeship
Huntress Motorcycle
Javelin-7
Jokermobile
Jonah Hex’s Mechanical Horse
JSA’s Steel Eagle
Justice League Cruiser
Justice League Teleporter
Kal-El’s Rocketship
Kanjar Ro’s Spaceship
Lansarian Morphing Disk
Legion Cruiser
Legion Flight Rings
Legion of Superheroes Flying Rings
Legion of Superheroes Time Bubble
Legion of Superheroes Time Cube
Lobo’s Spacehog
LX-811 Star Cruiser
Mark 494 Star Cruiser
Mitsu-Bishi
Mobius Chair
Multipurpose Intercept/Reconnaissance Vehicle
Mustang Three
Nautilus of Earth ABC
Newsboy Legion’s Whiz Wagon
Omega Men Mothership
Orion’s Astro-Harness
Owlship
P-40 Warhawk
Paco’s Convertible
Panzer-Ship
Peacemaker Hog
Pilgrim One
Quantum Jet
Rip Hunter’s Timesphere
Robin’s Redbird
Royal Flush Gang’s Flying Cards
Sam
Samson’s Chronomobile
Sandals of Hermes
Scanner One
Scarlet Skier’s Cosmic Skis
Scorpion-Ship
Sea Witch
Sheba
Space Cab
Space Shuttle Excalibur
Star-Rocket Racer
Starhunter’s Sunrider
Steel Eagle
Super-Cycle
Superman’s Phantom Zone Projector – It transports you to another dimension!
Supermobile
Swinging through the rooftops – Batman
T-Jet
T-Sub
Teen Titan’s Helicopter
Thangarian Star Cruiser
Time Bubble
Trickster’s Air Shoes
User: Bonesaw 19
Vig-Cycle
Vigilante’s Motocycle
Warehouse X Toys
Warhound
Warlord’s Plane
Whirly-Bat
Whiz Wagon
Wildcat’s Motorcycle
Wingcycle
Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane

Some of the more famous objects of transportation are Adam Strange’s Jetpack, the Batmobile, the Flash’s Cosmic Threadmill, the Haunted Tank, Hawkman’s Wings, Green Lantern’s Ring, Kal-El’s Rocketship, Legion of Superheroes Time Bubble, and Wonder Woman’ Invisible Plane. The top two of this list, the crème de la crème, are the Batmobile and Kal El’s Rocketship. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then the Batmobile has been praised again and again. The Arrowmobile, Catmobile, Jokermobile and to some extent the Spider-Mobile, as parody, are all derived from the Batmobile. Kal-El’s Rocketship refers to the space ship that delivered Superman to the planet Earth from Krypton. The Batmobile has been the subject of schematics from the beginning and you can buy toy collections of Batmobiles from the golden age to the present.

Superman’s rocket is a very different affair and the particulars of how the ship looks have varied tremendously from the golden age to the present. This is a contest between a very visually defined vehicle and an icon. The historic significance of Superman’s rocket ship is more important than the Batmobile. The rocket ship is an integral part of the Superman mythos and that mythos in turn largely defined comic books from the beginnings to the present. On iconic grounds I would say Kal El’s rocketship is the most important object of transportation in the DC universe and the coolest.

Marvel Transportation

Below is a list of objects of transportation in the DC universe.

Asgardian Star Jammer
Avengers Quinjet
Big Wheel
Dr. Doom’s Time Machine
Dr. Strange’s Cloak of Levitation
Fantastic Four’s Fantasti-Car
Fantastic Four’s Pogo Plane
Flying Horses – Valyky, Black Knight
Galactus Ship
Ghost Rider’s Hell Cycle
Green Goblin’s Glider
Guardians of the Galaxy – Freedom’s Lady
Hawkeyes Sky-cycle
Iron Man’s Armor
Kang’s Time-Ship
Moon Knight’s Helicopter
Nextwave’s Shockwave Rider
Quasar’s Quantum Bands
Runaway’s Leapfrog
S.H.I.E.L.D. Flying Car
S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier
Silver Surfer’s Board
Spider-Man’s Spider-Mobile
Stiltman’s Stilts
Swinging through the rooftops – Spiderman, Daredevil
Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir
X-Men’s Blackbird

Some of the most important objects of transportation in the Marvel universe include:

the Fantasti-Car, Iron Man’s Armor, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Thor’s hammer and the X-Men’s Blackbird. I have to mention is the Spider-Mobile that is largely forgotten but was in Spider-Man during the seventies and was hilarious. The Spider-Mobile was a parody of consumerism. Spider-Man agreed to ride the Spider-Mobile for an ad agency. Spider-Man is about always broke. The problem was the Spider-Mobile was constantly having troubles. Webhead would have been better of sticking to his webbing and swinging through the roof tops.

My Marvel favorites are the Fantasti-Car and Iron Man’s armor. Both are marvels of comic book engineering. Schematics of both were provided early on and you could almost believe these machines could be created. They represent very different ideas of design. Iron Man’s armor is a sleek, streamlined, minimalist machine that is a high tech, red and yellow, hot rod of the skies. If Iron Man’s armor is a hot rod then the Fantasti-Car is a Volkswagen that is not streamlined but very practical. The Fantasti-Car has a modular design that looks goofy but allows the individual Fantastic Four members to break away from the main ship and fight more effectively as a group. Iron Man led to any number of armored imitators and again if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Iron Man’s armor wins. However, does Iron Man’s armor deserve to win in this sort of contest? Iron Man’s armor is more weapon than transport. I think because of this the Fantasti-Car is the winner in the Marvel universe. The modular design of the Fantasti-Car might have real life applications.

The Soviet Union often used tank riders instead of trucks for transportation during WW II. Men hung onto tanks for dear life. This was done due to a lack of trucks on the part of the Soviet Union. However, later many tactical advantages came out of this experience. The men could quickly jump from the tank and provide support to the tank and vice-versa in a way troops in trucks could not.

I wonder if there is the possibility of some sort of helicopter rider system in which special forces could break away from a helicopter using some sort of individual pod rocket system attached to the outside of the helicopter allowing for greater speed in exiting than the current rappelling system used by special forces. You enter the external rocket pod using a door on the inside of the helicopter to provide maximum protection until the moment of exit. The rocket pod also allows quicker dispersal of special forces around an area and the pod also offers some extra protection upon exiting the protection of the helicopter.

Conclusion

The winner of the DC competition is Superman’s rocket ship. The winner of the Marvel competition is the Fantasti-Car. I love the sixties campiness of the Fantasti-Car but iconic value beats campiness and Superman’s object wins as the coolest object of transportation! DC wins! In the course of this study something else stood out.

What is very interesting when comparing the objects of transportation of DC with Marvel is that there is a giant difference in the number of such objects. This difference in numbers took me by surprise and is serendipitous result of this study. DC has 117 objects of transportation. Marvel has 27 objects of transportation. I have done my best to be exhaustive in the compilation of both lists but still may have missed an important object of transportation here and there but the difference in numbers is so great that one must come to the conclusion transportation, as reflected in the numbers above, is more important in the DC universe than the Marvel universe. I have my own after the fact theory about this.

I am old enough to have read comic books from the golden age to the present and let me assure younger readers that comic books have changed tremendously! The Marvel universe is a relatively new universe compared to DC whose superheroes and story line foundations were largely created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the sixties. I would argue one basic difference between Marvel and DC, especially in the sixties, was that Marvel focused a lot more on fights than the chase. For example, Superman spent way more time flying around looking for crooks than Thor. Thor quickly found his enemy and most of the issue focused on the fight. Thor fought characters like the Hulk. The Hulk does not flee from Thor that’s for sure. I actually bought the first issue in which Thor and the Hulk fought solo and even then I knew this was something different. For one thing Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created all these fight scene cartoon blurb sounds that had no equivalent in the DC universe. Jack Kirby used a lot more lines showing shock waves than anyone else. The fight looked more real and the key to this was actually using exaggerated action that is less real but interestingly looks more real due to the nature of the medium. I am into martial arts and have at least fifty books in the area with pictures that show each move of a kata and the pictures look pretty boring compared to a well done Jack Kirby punch or kick. I came to the conclusion that Marvel had better fight scenes and certainly longer fight scenes than DC. The difference in the quality and quantity of fight scenes between Marvel and DC has largely lessened over time.

I mentioned Doomsday and Superman in the introduction and their fight as chronicled in the Death of Superman storyline was generally one giant multi-issue series of fight scenes. I hate to admit it but I enjoyed the series! Remind me to grow up one of these days. For the record, Superman didn’t die despite the title of the series and I knew darn well Superman wouldn’t die and was amazed how my friends and family bought the lie hook line and sinker! And also for the record, Captain America and Batman are not going to stay dead!

The greater emphasis on fight scenes made Marvel more “modern” from their beginnings. Movies and TV were becoming more violent in the sixties and it made sense for comic books to go this route as well. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were more attuned to modern media trends than their counterparts at DC at the time and this is one reason Marvel became such a success at the expense of DC. As a side note, I do not consider comic books overly violent at all compared to other media.

Comic books have become more violent from the sixties to the present but are still much less violent than other media. I am especially amazed at some of the cutesy violent video games on Facebook that have tremendous appeal to my nieces and nephews who are in the six to ten year old age group. I would much rather my nieces and nephews were reading the most violent DC or Marvel comic book out there than playing those horrible video games. I guess I am getting old because despite the best efforts of my nieces and nephews to explain the games, I had no interest.

The games are kind of Hello Kitty meets the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You have these very cute cartoon characters wielding knifes or whatever and doing terrible things to other cute cartoon characters with blood and guts pouring out. I like my genres purer than that. I like Hello Kitty and I like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre but I really don’t care for Hello Kitty acting like Leatherface, the bad guy in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The games are very similar to Ren and Stimpy of The Simpsons fame but again are video games rather than a cartoon within a cartoon. I do think the interactive nature of a violent video game as opposed to a violent cartoon on TV is worrisome. Back to the topic of this post!

Another example of fight versus chase, many fifties Batman issues were reprinted in 80 page Giants in the sixties that I read when I was young and in many ways I grew up with this version of Batman. The fifties Batman is all about the chase! The Batman of the fifties invariably ended up in some sort of scenario with giant objects. Batman chased and fought crooks in an almost surrealistic landscape. Batmite was introduced at this time and used his reality warping powers not to fight Batman but to make the chase more interesting. There is no Marvel counterpart to this sort of chase.

I would argue the greater number of objects of transportation in the DC universe is due to DC having a golden age inheritance in which the chase was more important than the fight. Marvel does not share this inheritance and presumably would have more weapons than DC. Counting weapons is much harder than counting objects of transportation. I spent hours compiling lists of weapons in the DC and Marvel universe for my last post and am still not happy with the result. Weapons are ubiquitous in comic books. Objects of transportation are much smaller in number and easier to count definitively.

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Tagged Adam Strange’s Jetpack, Aerie One, Aerie Two, Alpha Centurion, Ambush Bug’s Teleport Suit, Arrowcar, Arrowplane, Asgardian, Avengers Quinjet, Batboat, Batcycle, Batmobile, Batplane, Birds of Prey, Black Knight, Black Manta’s Sea Saucer, Black Manta’s Walker, Blackhawk Planes, Blue Beetle’s Bug, Blue Tracer, Boom Tube, Booster Mobile, Brains Submarine, Braniac’s Skull Ship, Braniac’s Star Ship, Brontadon (Ship), Catplane, Catwoman, Challenger SST, Cloak of Levitation, Clockincopter, Cluster Ship, Cometeer, Cosmic Threadmill, Craddock Carriage, DC list of Transportation Objects, DC List of Vehicles, Di’ib, Doomsday Ship, Dr. Doom’s Time Machine, Dr. Strange, Eye of Zared, Fantasti-Car, Fantastic Four, Fiddle Car, Fiddler, Flash, Flying Fish, Flying Horse, Flying Horses, Flying Sundial, Fokker Dr. I, Freedom’s Lady, Galactus, Gentleman’s Horse, Ghost Rider, Gibel Ship, Golden Knight, Gorandian Battle Tripod, Gorandian Submarine, Green Arrow, Green Goblin’s Glider, Green Lantern Ring, Grumman XF5F, Guardians of the Galaxy, Gyrosub, Haunted Tank, Hawkeyes Sky-cycle, Hawkman’s Wings, Hell Cycle, Hourman’s Timeship, Huntress Motorcycle, Invisible Plane, Iron Man’s Armor, Javelin-7, Jokermobile, Jonah Hex’s Mechanical Horse, JSA’s Steel Eagle, Justice League Cruiser, Justice League Teleporter, Kal-El’s Rocketship, Kang’s Time-Ship, Kanjar Ro’s Spaceship, Lansarian Morphing Disk, Leapfrog, Legion Cruiser, Legion Flight Rings, Legion of Superheroes, Legion of Superheroes Flying Rings, Legion of Superheroes Time Cube, Lobo’s Spacehog, LX-811 Star Cruiser, Mark 494 Star Cruiser, Marvel List of Transportation Objects, Marvel List of Vehicles, Mitsu-Bishi, Mobius Chair, Moon Knight’s Helicopter, Multipurpose Intercept/Reconnaissance Vehicle, Mustang Three, Nautilus of Earth ABC, Newsboy Legion’s Whiz Wagon, Nextwave, Omega Men Mothership, Orion’s Astro-Harness, Owlship, P-40 Warhawk, Paco’s Convertible, Panzer-Ship, Pax Romana, Peacemaker Hog, Phantom Zone Projector, Pilgrim One, Pogo Plane, Quantum Bands, Quantum Jet, Quasar, Rip Hunter’s Timesphere, Robin’s Redbird, Royal Flush Gang’s Flying Cards, Runaway, S.H.I.E.L.D. Flying Car, S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Sam, Samson’s Chronomobile, Sandals of Hermes, Scanner One, Scarlet Skier’s Cosmic Skis, Scorpion-Ship, Sea Witch, Sheba, Shockwave Rider, Silver Surfer’s Board, Space Cab, Space Shuttle Excalibur, Spider-Man, Spider-Mobile, Star Jammer, Star-Rocket Racer, Starhunter’s Sunrider, Steel Eagle, Stiltman’s Stilts, Super-Cycle, Supermobile, T-Jet, T-Sub, Teen Titan’s Helicopter, Thangarian Star Cruiser, Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir, Time Bubble, Trickster’s Air Shoes, User: Bonesaw 19, Vig-Cycle, Vigilante’s Motocycle, Warehouse X Toys, Warhound, Warlord’s Plane, Whirly-Bat, Whiz Wagon, Wildcat’s Motorcycle, Wingcycle, Wonder Woman, X-Men’s Blackbird

DC vs. Marvel: Weapons

Posted on April 6, 2010 | 8 comments

In this installment of DC vs. Marvel, I compare the weapons of the DC universe with the weapons of the Marvel universe. The weapons are broken into three power levels. Each universe will have a winner declared in each category and the universe that wins in the most categories is the overall winner. The weapons will be judged in the areas of aesthetic, conceptual and/or utilitarian design. In other words, which universe has the coolest weapon in each category? This is not a “which weapon is more powerful” contest.

The weapons in the top power category are called (1) Cosmic Weapons. These are the really powerful weapons of the DC or Marvel universe. A person with this sort of weapon can take on a team of superheroes such as the Justice League or the Avengers or perhaps even shake the foundations of the universe. A good example on the high end of a cosmic weapon would be the Infinity Gauntlet of the Marvel universe. With the Infinity Gauntlet you can take on an army of superheroes and more. Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to challenge the combined might of Galactus, the Stranger, the titan Epoch, Love and Hate, two Celestials, Master Order, Lord Chaos, Kronos, Death and Epoch. An upper end Cosmic Weapon can alter reality. The range of the weapon can vary from global, at least, to galactic. A cosmic weapon is even difficult to conceptualize using pseudo science. This is part of the attraction of a cosmic weapon.

A good example of a weapon on the low end of this category would be the Sun Eater used in the DC Universe. The Sun Eater can give the Legion of Superheroes a hard time but it will take forever to eat enough suns to change the foundations of the universe. I wouldn’t try to take on even Galactus alone with a Sun Eater. Galactus might eat the Sun Eater!

The next power level would be (2) Super Weapons. These weapons enable the wielder to take on a heavy duty superhero such as Superman on the upper end of the power scale. Green Lantern’s ring would be a good example of a super weapon on the upper end. You might be able to defeat Superman with a Green Lantern ring, probably not, but you would have a chance at least. On the low end, Captain Cold’s cold gun can let a super villain take on a hero like the Flash. I would strongly urge any potential super villains out there not to try to take on Superman with something like a cold gun. A Super Weapon cannot be constructed in the real world but can be conceptualized with pseudo science.

The last level is what I call (3) Street Weapons because they are the type of weapons you see used on the streets. Often they are normal weapons that have been enhanced with some tinkering. On a good day, you might be able to take on a half a dozen street crooks with one of these weapons but you probably need some special martial arts skill to do this. A good example of this type of weapon would be Daredevil’s Billy Club or Batman’s Batarang. A street weapon could be constructed in the real world but probably would have to be adapted considerably due to real life technical constraints.

1.0) COSMIC WEAPONS

1.1) Cosmic Weapons – DC

Some of the cosmic weapons in the DC universe include the

Anti-Life Equation

Book of Eternity

Miracle Machine

Spear of Destiny

Sun-Eater

Warworld

The Spear of Destiny is the spear used to pierce the side of Jesus Christ. Hitler used the Spear of Destiny in the DC Universe to keep the American superheroes from liberating Europe. Superman was given the task of killing the Spectre with the Spear of Destiny in one issue. The Spectre is the most powerful being in the DC Universe and anything that can kill him has to be pretty powerful. The Spear of Destiny gives the wielder the ability to control the minds of super powered individuals, massive reality warping and extremely powerful holy abilities

The Book of Eternity is a book that contains the story of existence. If absolute knowledge can lead to absolute power then does absolute corruption follow…? The wielder of the book also is granted vast magical powers.

This idea that knowledge is power is also explored in the concept of the Anti-Life Equation that will destroy all life. Darkseid is obsessed with the equation and according to him in one issue the equation is:

loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side

If Darkseid says the equation then the victim has mathematical certainty that all life and existence are futile and that serving Darkseid is the only point in existence. This is mind control but mind control that can be shared via the internet and presumably even intergalactic communication systems that advanced races would possess. A master of this equation could rule the cosmos with but a sentence and a good media outlet. Those controlled could be asked to repeat the message to even more beings so the equation would spread exponentially. In short, the equation has metamemetic properties. For a definition of metamemetics please read:

Someday I will master the science of metamemetics and use this blog to rule the world!

Bwa-ha-ha-haaaa!

Two of the DC Cosmic Weapons are from the Legion of Superheroes storyline. The Sun-Eater is a living nebula with the ability to snuff out whole stars. The Sun-Eater was created by the Controllers to destroy unworthy worlds. The Miracle Machine was also created by the Controllers. The machine can convert thoughts into reality and was given to the Legion of Superheroes as a reward for destroying the Sun-Eater controlled by a renegade Controller. Braniac 5 used the machine to repel an alien invasion of Earth. The combined armed forces of Earth and the Legion of Superheroes were losing the war so this is a good weapon to have on your side. Warworld is a whole world filled with weapons not just on the surface but from the surface to the core. Superman was barely able to stop even one skyscraper sized missile launched at Earth and the Warworld presumably has countless missiles and all sorts of weapons. Presumably even a team of superheroes could not even begin to shield Earth from an attack from Warworld but I doubt you could change the cosmos with this weapon.

1.2) Cosmic Weapons – Marvel

Some of the cosmic weapons in the Marvel universe include

Casket of Ancient Winters

Cosmic Cube

Evil Eye of Avalon

Infinity Gauntlet

Serpent Crown

Odinsword

Ultimate Nullifier

Wand of Watoomb

The most powerful weapon in the Marvel universe is probably the Ultimate Nullifier. The Ultimate Nullifier is generally in the possession of Galactus. Korvac used the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy a universe in the multiverse. The drawback is that use of the weapon is suicidal. Whoever wields the Ultimate Nullifier is also destroyed!

A close second in the Marvel universe in terms of power might be the Infinity Gauntlet. You can take over the universe with the Infinity Gauntlet. Whether or not you could destroy a universe with the Infinity Gauntlet has not been determined. The cosmic cube was the most powerful weapon in Marvel universe for years and years since it could alter reality with a thought but later the range of this weapon was set at a global level.

Before the appearance of the cosmic cube the most powerful weapon in the Marvel universe was the largely forgotten Odinsword that even graced the cover of Thor #156. The Odinsword was supposed to end the universe if drawn from its scabbard and this idea really struck my imagination when I was a youth in the sixties. Later, Odin absorbed the life force of all Asgardians, blew up the enchanted armor known as the Destroyer, to gigantic size, and grabbed the Odinsword to take on the Celestials and got blown up for his troubles so this event shows this sword is not in the same league as the Ultimate Nullifier or the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos was able to defeat two celestials and heavy-duty company with the Infinity Gauntlet. Korvac was able to destroy a whole universe despite the Celestials.

Dormammu once used the Evil Eye of Avalon to merge his dimension with that of Earth. The Eye of Avalon was hexed by the Scarlet Witch and the ensuing energy disaster temporarily destroyed Dormammu and drove Loki mad. Maybe the Evil Eye of Avalon is third in terms of power in the Marvel Universe.

Cosmic weapons in the Marvel Universe that allow you to take on a band of superheroes, but probably not take over the cosmos directly, include the Wand of Watoomb and the Serprent Crown. The Wand of Watoomb enables the wielder to mentally project and absorb mystical energy, create force fields, control weather, open dimensional portals, observe events in other locations, and heal wounds. The Serpent Crown gives the user superhuman strength, telepathy, mind control, telekinesis, the ability to cast illusions, the power to project destructive bolts of mystical energy and even the mental ability to manipulate matter and energy. The Casket of Ancient Winters is Asgardian and allows the wielder to control infinite cold. A very specialized weapon but anything of infinite power belongs in the cosmic range.

1.3) Winner

For sheer originality the Anti-Life Equation wins! The ultimate cosmic weapon would not be concrete but abstract. This confirms what you always knew in your heart, algebra can end all life in the universe! E=MC²is an equation that has changed the world more than just about anything. I think of the Anti-Life Equation as a super advanced version of E=MC². I am sure just such an equation is just around the corner in real life.

2.0) SUPER WEAPONS

2.1) Super Weapons – DC

Adam Strange’s Ray Gun

Aquaman’s Hook

Black Lantern Ring

Black Manta’s Battlesuit

Blue Beetle’s Scarab

Blue Devil’s Trident of Lucifer

Blue Lantern Ring

Braniac’s Space Ships

Braniac’s Force Field

Calculator Battlesuit

Captain Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs

Captain Cold’s Cold Gun

Copperhead’s Armor

Deadshot’s Wrist Mounted Firearms

Disintegrator Sphere

Dr. Fate’s Helm of Nabu

Emerald Eye of Ekron – Emerald Empress

Entropy Aegis Armor

Exectutioner’s Atomic Axe

Fiddler’s Fiddle

Golden Girdle of Gaea

Golden Glider’s Iceskates

Green Lantern Power Ring

Hawkgirl’s Dart Gun

Hawkman’s Protonic Lance

Hawkgirl’s Wings

Hawkman’s Wings

Heat Wave’s Gun

HERO Dial

Icicle’s Cold Gun

Indigo Power Ring

Kanjar Ro’s Gamma Gong

Kinetic Hammer

Lasso of Lightning

Mageddon

Mega-Rod

Mirror Master’s Trick Mirrors

Mr. Freeze Cold Gun

Orange Lantern Ring

Orb of Ra

Orion’s Astro-Harness

Phantom Zone Projector

Piped Pipers flute

Psi-Scimitar

Psycho Pirate’s Medusa Mask

Qwa-Bolts

Red Power Ring

Sandman’s Sand of Sleep

Sandman’s Dreamstone

Sandman’s Helm of Dreams

Sargon the Sorcerer’s Ruby of Life

Sonigun

Soultaker Sword

Spear of Lonea

Star Man’s Cosmic Rod

Star Sapphire

Steel’s Apokolips Armor

Toastmasters

Trident of Neptune

Trident of Poseidon

Trident of Triton

Weather Wizard’s Wand

Webgun

Wonder Woman’s Bracelets of the Aegis

Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth

Xantha Charge

Yellow Power Ring

The two most famous weapons in the DC list are probably Green Lantern’s power ring and Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth. Recently, DC decided to add a whole rainbow of power rings to their universe and I think this is diluting the brand. What’s next a purple Hulk? The creator of Wonder Woman also invented the lie detector! The Lasso of Truth is the ultimate lie detector! I think both weapons are great but slightly prefer the Lasso of Truth due to its interesting origins.

2.2) Super Weapons – Marvel

Beetle’s Armor

Black Blade of Baghdad

Black Knight’s Ebony Blade

Black Knight’s Ebony Dagger

Black Knight’s Power Lance

Black Knight’s Shield of Night

Blacklash’s Whip

Blizzard’s Suit

Bloodaxe

Big Wheel

Caliburn

Captain America’s Shield

Chorus Sentry

Cobalt Bomb

Controller’s Slave Discs

Convincer

Cosmic Control Rod

Crimson Dynamo’s Armor

Crimson Gem of Cyttorak

Cyclone’s Suit

Destroyer (Enchanted Armor)

Doctor Octopus Tentacles

Dr. Doom’s Armor

Dragonfang Sword

Eagle Shield

Electroplasmic Wand

Energy Shield

Excalibur

Exorcist Gun

Eye of Agamotto

Firebrand Suit

Firepower’s Armor

Firesword

Fiver Fingers of Annilation

Gamma Bomb

Ghost Rider’s Chain

Ghost’s Battlesuit

Golden Mace of Hercules

Grim Reaper’s Scythe

Guantlets of Ares

Hofund

Hurricane’s Wings

Iron Man Armor (Earth-200151)

Iron Man’s Armor

Iron Monger’s Armor

Jet Parlyzer

Justiciar

Kurokaze

Mandarin’s Ten Rings

Mandroid Armor

Megingjord

Mirage’s Holographic Suit

Mysterio’s Helmet with Holographic Projector

Mysterio’s Gloves and Boots that Emit Hallucinogenic Gas

Odin’s Thrudstok

Polestar’s Magnetic Gauntlets

Pyro’s Battlesuit and Flamethrowers

Quantum Bands

Ringmaster’s Top Hat with Portable Mind-control Device

Rhino’s Polymer Armor

Ronan the Accuser’s Universal Weapon

Sakki

Scell

Scorcher’s Suit and Flamethrowers

Shocker’s Gauntlets

Silver Surfer’s Surfboard

Son of Satan’s Trident

Spymater’s Battlesuit

Staff of Polar Power

Star-Blazer

Star Shield

Stilt-Man’s Armor

Stormbreaker

Streamsword

Sun Shredder

Sunbeam Ray Gun

Surtur’s Twilight Sword

Sword of Bone

Sword of Fangs

Sword of Frey

Sword of Kamnu

Sword of Light

Sword of Might

Sword of Night

Sword of Ultimate Shadow

Swordman’s Sword

Taskmaster’s Solid Energy Weapon

Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir

Titanium Man’s Armor

Ulik’s Pounders

Ultra-Diode Ray

Unicorn’s Power Horn

Vulture’s Wings

Whiplash’s Gauntlets and Battlesuit

Wizard’s Power Gloves

Wrecker’s Crowbar

The three most famous weapons in the Marvel list are Thor’s hammer, Captain America’s shield and Iron Man’s armor. Captain America, Iron Man and Thor are all members of the Avengers so you often get to see these incredible weapons together in one great comic book.

2.3) Winner

I loved Iron Man the movie! One of the major subplots of the movie is the creation of Iron Man’s armor. Could you do this with any other weapon in the DC or Marvel universe? I don’t think so. Iron Man’s armor is the coolest super weapon because of its story line and plausibility. DC and Marvel are tied at this point and the next weapon decides which universe has the coolest super weapons.

3.0) STREET LEVEL WEAPONS

3.1) Street Level – DC

Azrael’s Armor

Batman’s Batarang

Batman’s Utility Belt

Catwoman’s Cat o Nine Tails Whip

Catwoman’s Retractable Claws

Deathstroke’s Staff

Green Arrow’s Trick Arrows

Hawkman’s Claw of Horus

Huntress’ Crossbow

Joker’s Acid Squirting Flower

Joker’s Cyanide Pies

Joker’s Electrified Joy Buzzer

Joker’s Exploding Cigars with Nitroglycerine

Joker’s Razor Sharp Throwing Cards

Lobo’s Chain and Hook

Penguin’s Trick Umbrellas

Robin’s Battle Staff

Sandman’s Gas Gun

The three coolest street level weapons in the DC universe all come from the Batman family and include the batarang, utility belt and the Joker’s squirting flower. Joker’s Squirting flower doesn’t squirt water but squirts Joker venom or acid.

3.2) Street Level – Marvel

Black Widow’s Gauntlets

Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs

Daredevil’s Billy Club

Jester’s Trick Artificial Hands

Jester’s Ball Bearing Marbles

Jester’s Exploding Popcorn

Jester’s Flying Discs

Jester’s Explosive Rubber Balls

Jester’s Yo-Yo

Gladiator’s Wrist Mounted Rotating Circular Blades

Green Goblin’s Glider

Green Goblin’s Pumpkin Bombs

Hawkeye’s Trick Arrows

Paladin’s Armor

Mockingbird’s Battle Stave

Moon Knight’s Boomerang

Moon Knight’s Golden Ankh

Moon Knight’s Throwing Irons

The coolest street level weapon in the Marvel universe is Daredevil’s Billy club. A close second might be the Green Goblin’s equipment that led to the Hobgoblin who used the same equipment. The Green Goblin glider probably belongs in the super weapons category. The pumpkin bombs definitely belong in the street level category since they are basically grenades with a gimmick.

3.3) Winner

The Batman family sets the standard for street weapons in comic books! The difficult choice is trying to decide which Batman family weapon is the coolest. I actually created a utility belt! I was living in Taiwan at the time and Taiwan is beset with typhoons, earthquakes and the threat of invasion from mainland China. More as a conceptual exercise than anything else, I made a utility belt designed to facilitate survival in all three of Taiwan’s scenarios. My buddies got a real kick out of the belt and made various suggestions. The emphasis of the belt was survival rather than military usage so my belt had totally different stuff than Batman’s belt. I actually think the belt I created would be semi useful. I vote Batman’s utility belt as the coolest street weapon since it is actually possible to create to some extent.

Conclusion

The Anti-Life Equation is the best cosmic weapon. Iron Man’s Armor is the best super weapon. Batman’s utility belt is the coolest street level weapon. DC wins two out of three categories.

DC wins!

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Tagged Adam Strange’s Ray Gun, Anti-Life Equation, Aquaman's Hook, Azrael’s Armor, Batman’s Batarang, Batman’s Utility Belt, Beetle’s Armor, Big Wheel, Black Blade of Baghdad, Black Knight’s Ebony Blade, Black Knight’s Ebony Dagger, Black Knight’s Power Lance, Black Knight’s Shield of Night, Black Lantern Ring, Black Manta’s Battlesuit, Black Widow’s Gauntlets, Blacklash’s, Blizzard’s Suit, Bloodaxe, Blue Beetle’s Scarab, Blue Devil’s Trident of Lucifer, Blue Lantern Ring, Book of Eternity, Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs, Braniac’s Force Field, Braniac’s Space Ships, Calculator Battlesuit, Caliburn, Captain America’s Shield, Captain Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs, Captain Cold’s Cold Gun, Casket of Ancient Winters, Catwoman’s Cat o Nine Tails Whip, Catwoman’s Retractable Claws, Chorus Sentry, Cobalt Bomb, Comic Book List of Weapons, Controller’s Slave Discs, Controllers, Convincer, Copperhead’s Armor, Cosmic Control Rod, Cosmic Cube, cosmic weapons, Crimson Dynamo’s Armor, Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, Cyclone’s Suit, Daredevil’s Billy Club, Darkseid, DC Comics List of Weapons, DC vs. Marvel, Deadshot’s Wrist Mounted Firearms, Death and Epoch, Deathstroke’s Staff, Destroyer (Enchanted Armor), Disintegrator Sphere, Doctor Octopus Tentacles, Dr. Doom’s Armor, Dr. Fate’s Helm of Nabu, Dragonfang Sword, Eagle Shield, Electroplasmic Wand, Emerald Empress, Emerald Eye of Ekron, Energy Shield, Entropy Aegis Armor, Evil Eye of Avalon, Excalibur, Exectutioner’s Atomic Axe, Exorcist Gun, Eye of Agamotto, Fiddler’s Fiddle, Firebrand Suit, Firepower’s Armor, Firesword, Five Fingers of Annihilation, Galactus, Gamma Bomb, Ghost Rider’s Chain, Ghost’s Battlesuit, Gladiator Weapons, Golden Girdle of Gaea, Golden Glider’s Iceskates, Golden Mace of Hercules, Green Arrow’s Trick Arrows, Green Goblin Weapons, Green Lantern Power Ring, Grim Reaper’s Scythe, Guantlets of Ares, Hawkeye’s Trick Arrows, Hawkgirl’s Dart Gun, Hawkgirl’s Wings, Hawkman’s Claw of Horus, Hawkman’s Protonic Lance, Hawkman’s Wings, Heat Wave’s Gun, HERO Dial, Hofund, Huntress’ Crossbow, Hurricane's Wings, Icicle’s Cold Gun, Indigo Power Ring, Infinity Gauntlet, Iron Man Armor (Earth-200151), Iron Man’s Armor, Iron Monger’s Armor, Jester Weapons, Jet Paralyzer, Joker’s Acid Squirting Flower, Joker’s Cyanide Pies, Joker’s Electrified Joy Buzzer, Joker’s Exploding Cigars with Nitroglycerine, Joker’s Razor Sharp Throwing Cards, Justiciar, Kanjar Ro’s Gamma Gong, Kinetic Hammer, Korvac, Kronos, Kurokaze, Lasso of Lightning, Legion of Superheroes, Lobo’s Chain and Hook, Lord Chaos, Love and Hate, Mageddon, Mandarin’s Ten Rings, Mandroid Armor, Marvel Comics List of Weapons, Master Order, Mega-Rod, Megingjord, Metamemetics, Miracle Machine, Mirage’s Holographic Suit, Mirror Master’s Trick Mirrors, Mockingbird’s Battle Stave, Moon Knight’s Boomerang, Moon Knight’s Golden Ankh, Moon Knight’s Throwing Irons, Mr. Freeze Cold Gun, Mysterio’s gloves and boots, Mysterio’s Helmet with Holographic Projector, Odin’s Thrudstok, Odinsword, Orange Lantern Ring, Orb of Ra, Orion’s Astro-Harness, Paladin’s Armor, Penguin’s Trick Umbrellas, Phantom Zone Projector, Piped Pipers flute, Polestar’s Magnetic Gauntlets, Psi-Scimitar, Psycho Pirate’s Medusa Mask, Pyro’s Battlesuit and Flamethrowers, Quantum Bands, Qwa-Bolts, Red Power Ring, Rhino’s Polymer Armor, Ringmaster's Top Hat with Portable Mind-control Device, Robin’s Battle Staff, Ronan the Accuser’s Universal Weapon, Sakki, Sandman’s Dreamstone, Sandman’s Gas Gun, Sandman’s Helm of Dreams, Sandman’s Sand of Sleep, Sargon the Sorcerer’s Ruby of Life, Scell, Scorcher’s Suit and Flamethrowers, Serpent Crown, Shocker’s Gauntlets, Silver Surfer’s Surfboard, Son of Satan’s Trident, Sonigun, Soultaker Sword, Spear of Destiny, Spear of Lonea, Spymater’s Battlesuit, Staff of Polar Power, Star Man’s Cosmic Rod, Star Sapphire, Star Shield, Star-Blazer, Steel’s Apokolips Armor, Stilt-Man’s Armor, Stormbreaker, Streamsword, street weapons, Sun Shredder, Sun-Eater, Sunbeam Ray Gun, super weapons, Surtur’s Twilight Sword, Sword of Bone, Sword of Fangs, Sword of Frey, Sword of Kamuu, Sword of Light, Sword of Might, Sword of Night, Sword of Ultimate Shadow, Swordman’s Sword, Taskmaster’s Solid Energy Weapon, Thanos, the Stranger, the titan Epoch, Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir, Titanium Man’s Armor, Toastmasters, Trident of Neptune, Trident of Poseidon, Trident of Triton, two Celestials, Ulik’s Pounders, Ultimate Nullifier, Ultra-Diode Ray, Unicorn’s Power Horn, Vulture’s Wings, Wand of Watoomb, Warworld, Weather Wizard’s Wand, Webgun, Whip, Whiplash’s Gauntlets and Battlesuit, Wizard’s Power Gloves, Wonder Woman’s Bracelets of the Aegis, Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, Wrecker’s Crowbar, Xantha Charge, Yellow Power Ring

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DC vs. Marvel: Fourth Wall Heroes

Posted on February 24, 2010 | 2 comments

I want to welcome Animal Man (DC) and She-Hulk (Marvel) to my humble blog. What many comic book readers may not be aware of is that both characters share a very unique super power. Animal Man and the She-Hulk possess metafictional awareness. They are aware of the fact that they are comic book heroes and that they inhabit a comic book reality and from time to time have broken the fourth wall that separates reader from fiction.

Hugh Fox: Let me start with the She-Hulk. What’s it like knowing you are a comic book character?

She Hulk: First of all I didn’t always know I am a comic book character. I first possessed metafictional awareness during the run of the Sensational She-Hulk by John Byrne. That was a blast. I got into arguments with John. I could tear up the page. I could walk through advertisements. I could even make appeals to John’s Editor, Renee Wittstaetter. She even bound and gagged John and locked him in a storage closet in the issue #50 which unfortunately was also the last issue. I did not have metafictional awareness prior to this series. When I acquired metafictional awareness I read my earliest title run the Savage She-Hulk and can’t help but think what a dope I was back then and for the record I am not drawn very well and the plots aren’t very good either. The creators of the Savage She-Hulk also neglected my potential sexiness. Come on I can be really hot. John was great and I thank him for making me a sexier character and a more aware character than I had been previously. There are some good points about the Savage She-Hulk. I am proud to point out that I was the last Marvel creation of Stan Lee perhaps the greatest comic book creator ever. Stan Lee was assisted in my creation by John Buscema.

Hugh Fox: You have had metafictional awareness in recent years as well as I recall.

She Hulk: This happened years after the cancellation of John’s run. In 2004 the series titled simply She-Hulk was launched and I kept my metafictional awareness in that series which I am sad to say came to an end in 2009. I would like to make a plug for the graphic novels that collect my adventures of that run. The first volume is titled Single Green Female, the second volume is Superhuman Law, and the third volume is titled Time Trials. I especially liked how I could go to the long boxes in that series and get answers to problems.

Hugh Fox: I am not sure I know what you are referring to.

She Hulk: The law firm I worked for had long boxes of every Marvel comic book ever published and the boxes basically acted as a database I could use.

Hugh Fox: Knowledge is power!

She Hulk: You better believe it. I could also use other long boxes due to my metafictional awareness. Let me give you one example. I visited NYC Comics and found the key to defeating Titania who had potentially infinite super strength at the time. Titania was wearing a really hot dominatrix type outfit at the time that really showed of her legs which I have to admit are pretty good. Great cat fight by the way. I even had my Jupiter suit torn to shreds by Titania in that fight. Fortunately, I was wearing a sexy white and purple Lycra gym suit underneath. I am amazed that series got cancelled since you would assume guys who buy comic books would love a good cat fight. I mean sex sells doesn’t it?

Hugh Fox: Are you saying you don’t mind being a comic book sex object?

She Hulk: I like being alive and if some sex is needed to keep me alive then so be it but I am so much more than just a sex object. My overt sexuality is just one side of my character. I see myself as kind of a Sex in the City character in the Marvel Comics New York. My career as a lawyer for super humans was a major plot line in my last series and I had very complex soap opera type relationships. I mean my poor cousin the Hulk just runs around smashing stuff and has dialogue like “Me Hulk, me smash puny humans”. Ninety percent of the time he is running around in the same torn purple pants. I mean who ever heard of purple pants for a man? I mean it’s a great color for a woman but a man? They gave a similar torn type wardrobe in the cover of issue one of the Savage Hulk series which did nothing for my figure but in the later series I got to wear all sorts of great corporate but sexy outfits as a lawyer. My superhero outfits were great as well.

I especially liked my form fitting lycra Fantastic Four uniform. I didn’t care for the Jupiter Suit that I mentioned which was more a space suit than anything else even though I did get to change the color from yellow and green to white and purple, my trademark colors but of course the Jupiter suit only existed to be torn away later in my fight with Titania.

Hugh Fox: You are pretty quiet Animal Man. What are your thoughts about having metafictional awareness?

Animal Man: I am glad someone enjoyed having metafictional awareness! My own experience has been very different that of the She-Hulk and quite terrible. Like the She-Hulk, I did not have metafictional awareness during my early years. I first appeared in Strange Adventures in 1965! That makes me a lot older than the She-Hulk and for the first twenty years of my existence I was a third tier super hero with no metafictional awareness whatsoever and wandered in and out of comic book limbo.

Hugh Fox: Comic book limbo?

Animal Man: I don’t know how it works in the Marvel universe but in the DC universe when your series is cancelled, and you don’t make any guest appearances in other titles then you end up in comic book limbo. Kind of where the forgotten super heroes go. At least that is the way the place was explained to me by Merry Man of the Inferior Five who was an inhabitant of comic book limbo when I visited the place. Now this brings up a paradox. If he is in a comic book explaining comic book limbo then he is an active super hero and should not be in comic book limbo.

Hugh Fox: I get what you are saying. The Inferior Five were very much inactive superheroes that were totally wiped out during the crisis of infinite Earths but yeah their appearance in a current comic book means they are once more part of the DC continuity. But if you take this logic to its extreme you can’t portray comic book limbo at all and this would destroy what I felt was a very good comic book and plot necessity trumps a paradox in fiction.

Animal Man: Spoken like a creator. Well anyway, in the eighties, Grant Morrison, a Brit was brought on board to DC along other with other Brits like Alan Moore and the Brits where given the task of revamping old and out of date characters like myself. Alan Moore reinvented the Swamp Thing. Grant Morrison decided to reinvent me! If only Alan Moore had picked me instead. The Swamp Thing didn’t have an easy life by any means under the reign of Alan Moore but he got a better deal than me. Grant Morrison was a sadistic and horrible creator!

Hugh Fox: How was he sadistic?

Animal Man: I didn’t receive metafictional awareness all at once but little by little via a torturous plot line that ran around two years. My family got killed. My reality slowly melted around me. I spent time in comic book limbo as I mentioned before, and this was not pleasant let me tell you. The reader was more or less aware of what was going on at least a year before so basically I am not having fun with the readers like the She-Hulk but being manipulated for effect.

Hugh Fox: What do you mean?

Animal Man: I met a character in the Coyote Gospel called Crafty that was a thinly veiled Wile E. Coyote of the Road Runner cartoon series. Crafty made a deal with God, creator like you. God would end the endless cartoon violence of Crafty’s universe if he agreed to enter the DC universe. Grant tortured Crafty over and over again in this sick story. In the end Crafty dies in my arms horribly but is totally unable to communicate why he was in the DC Universe because he is a cartoon character. The reader knows what is going on but I am made a fool of. Was Grant Morrison punished for this evil comic book in the universe of the Creators? No, Grant Morrison got an Eisner Award for Best Single Issue of 1989! There are civil rights organizations, animal rights organizations, and women’s rights organizations. I think there is a real need for an organization to defend the right of comic book characters in order to prevent this sort of injustice!

Hugh Fox: You aren’t real. Crafty isn’t real. You aren’t really feeling pain.

Animal Man: Maybe you aren’t real! Maybe you are just some character in a comic book or movie or whatever. Have you ever thought of that?

Hugh Fox: I am not sure if I am in a virtual reality but I am sure a virtual reality would be more numerological than a non-virtual reality.

Animal Man: Anyway, at the end of this torturous metafictional story line I got to meet my creator, Grant Morrison and he dismissed all my pain and suffering very callously and told me some baloney about the death of his cat. I had my family brutally killed and he is comparing that with the death of his stupid cat! Creators have no perspective whatsoever.

Hugh Fox: I guess if you are going to be a metafictional character you are much better of being in the Marvel Universe than the DC Universe.

She Hulk: Based on what Animal Man has said, I don’t think it’s a universe thing but a creator thing. You get someone like John as a creator and you have a great ride. I have never met Animal Man before this post but if you get someone like Grant Morrison then your metafictional existence is extremely painful. Too bad you can’t pick your creator. I also think being female is a plus since most creators are guys and guys treat female characters better than male characters.

Hugh Fox: You think so? In the DC universe you have had the following terrible things happen to female characters. Stephanie Brown (Spoiler, Robin IV, Batgirl III) was brutally tortured by the Black Mask with a power drill and shot to “death”. In Green Lantern #54 showed Kyle Radner coming home to his apartment and finding his dead girlfriend stuck in the refrigerator.

She Hulk: That’s horrible I hope none of those creators ever get a hold of me.

Hugh Fox: Actually one of your creators, John Byrne was mentioned in a section on the list but this section has since been removed. Yeah there is a whole debate about how female characters are killed and/or tortured in horrific ways in order to generate more sales among the largely teenage male audience. The name for this controversy is called Women in Refrigerators Syndrome. There is an infamous list of examples of women who have been killed or tortured horrifically in comic books. This list was created online by comic book fans in 1999. The list is a work in progress as new comic books come out.

She Hulk: Despite my metafictional awareness, this awareness is strictly limited to the Marvel universe and I had no knowledge of the events you have mentioned. The DC universe sounds like a horrible place for women.

Hugh Fox: Ok you two this a DC vs. Marvel post which is in turn part of a series of such posts on my blog and it’s time for less talking and good old slug fest.

Animal Man: Are you kidding just look at her. She is a female version of the Hulk. Based on the events of War Hulk I would say the Hulk is the strongest being of the Marvel universe. Unlike the She-Hulk I have some knowledge of the Marvel universe. My terrible experiences have made me aware that ignorance is not bliss but a path to suffering and I have expanded my metafictional awareness as much as possible. Besides there are no animals in this post from I can mimic powers from and I do not sense any animal kingdom on this post. That’s my super power readers. For example, if I am around a bird I can fly. I don’t grow wings or anything, I just can fly. I once mimicked the strength of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and that’s about as strong as I have ever been and this is nowhere near She-Hulk levels. And I already know that my super power is totally implausible, even by comic book standards, which is saying a lot, and maybe that’s one of the reasons Grant Morrison decided to pick on me.

Hugh Fox: You want animals? I’ll give you animals. I hereby create the entire animal kingdom on this post. Hey, I have an idea why don’t I get a Kryptonian animal on board? That way you would have powers that equal or surpass that of Superman. Hulk vs. Superman fights are very popular online and this would be a variant of that sort of fight. You absorbed the ability to fire lightning from your face from an alien creature so your ability to mimic alien animal powers is already established.

She Hulk: I don’t know much about this Superman character but if he is strong enough to take on the Hulk then I am not interested. I am not my cousin the Hulk. My cousin took me out with a single blow in the War Hulk series, well he didn’t take me out totally, but I had enough sense to stay down. Look having metafictional awareness means you aren’t as dopey as the superheroes that do not possess such awareness. You get some perspective and with metafictional awareness and are a lot less likely to engage in simplistic heroics or at least that’s the case with me.

Hugh Fox: I am the creator and ruler of this post and I order you two to start fighting. I hereby cause Beppo, the Kryptonian super monkey, to appear so Animal Man can be almost as powerful as Superman just as the She-Hulk is almost as powerful as the Hulk. You won’t have the strength of Superman but you will have the greater agility a monkey has relative to a human. The contest should be interesting.

Animal Man: I evoke “plot plausibility” which even governs creators. Why would two super heroes that have no grudge whatsoever just start fighting?

Hugh Fox: Happens all the time in comic books!

Animal Man: Come on you are a better creator than that!

Hugh Fox: Yeah I suppose you are right but how do we decide which universe wins if there is no slug fest?

Animal Man: Before my family was killed brutally I was a pretty good parent and one way I settled conflicts between my son and daughter was through a paper, scissors, stone contest.

Hugh Fox: Ok I can live with that. It’s got a kind of metafictional dry humor to it that fits this post.

Animal Man and the She-Hulk go ahead and do paper, scissors and stone with their hands and She-Hulk counters Animal Man’s scissors with stone. So DC beats Marvel in this post.

She Hulk: Hey, why did you let me win?

Hugh Fox: First of all I just want to say I love both your titles. I am into metafiction. My novel Half Square is metafiction. I love comic books so of course I am going to love a metafictional comic book but I prefer your metafictional comic books to those of Animal Man partly partly because of the art if you know what I mean, heh, heh.

She Hulk: So you let me win because I’m hot? Well I can live with that.

Hugh Fox: No, not totally, you are a super smart lawyer and let’s face it Animal Man isn’t too bright and a blue collar guy if I recall correctly. Smarter people do better in games of strategy than dumber people or one would assume. Last but not least you would have some of that female intuition which I think is largely a greater awareness of body language at a subconscious level and that’s important in a game like paper, scissors, stone. I think all things being equal women are more likely to win paper, scissors, stone than men although I have no empirical basis for this belief but think it might be an interesting and funny study.

She Hulk: Well whatever your reasons, thanks. No hard feelings Animal Man. If DC and Marvel ever decide to do another crossover then make sure to look me up. I would love to have a long talk with someone else with metafictional awareness and have to admit I am kind of curious about the DC Universe.

Animal Man: I will definitely look you up. The Avengers/Justice League crossover made a ton of money for both DC and Marvel so I think another crossover is inevitable. I don’t mind losing at all and just glad we ran into a creator that was smart enough to avoid yet another senseless comic book slug fest.

Hugh Fox: Well readers, that’s the end of this post. I think a comic book featuring Animal Man and the She-Hulk having some metafictional adventures as a team could be interesting.

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(http://www.comicvine.com/super-smell/41-19/)

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Posted in DC vs. Marvel

Tagged Animal Man, Batgirl III, Beppo, comic book limbo, Coyote Gospel, Crafty, DC vs. Marvel, Fourth Wall, Grant Morrison, Green Lanter #50, Hulk, Inferior Five, John Buscema, John Byrne, Krypton, Kyle Radner, Merry Man, Metafiction, metafictional awareness, Renee Wittstaetter, Road Runner, Robin IV, Savage She-Hulk, Sensational She-Hulk, Sex in the City, sex object, She-Hulk, Single Green Female, Spoiler, Stan Lee, Stephanie Brown, Superhuman Law, Superman, Time Trials, Tyrannosaurus Rex, War Hulk, Wile E. Coyote, Women in Refrigerators

DC vs. Marvel: Battle of the Super Pets

Posted on January 20, 2010 | 6 comments

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers

Recently, Lockjaw and various super pets of the Marvel universe had a cosmic adventure in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers. I am old enough to remember the Legion of Super Pets of the silver age of DC comic books fondly and couldn’t help but notice many similarities. Because of these memories and the recent Marvel title, I was inspired to write this post. Heroic pets have existed in other media. In particular, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin existed in film and television but the invention of comic book super heroes led to the very particular super pet. A super pet is the animal sidekick to a super hero.

Krypto

Probably the most famous super pet is Krypto, Superman’s super dog from Krypton. Krypto has had many solo adventures in DC comic books and even his own animated series on the Cartoon Network that started in 2005. The series is regular who’s who of evil super pets. Some of the evil super pets include the Joker’s hyenas Bud and Lou, Catwoman’s cat Isis, The Penguins trained birds (Artie the Puffin, Griff the Vulture, Waddles the Puffin), and Lex Luthor’s pet iguana Ignatius.

Krypto inspired a whole list of super pets that now appear dated. I think one explanation of why super pets where so popular in that period but not now is that quite simply the median age of comic book readers during the silver age was much lower than now. Younger readers like stories about animals and pets more than older readers. A lot more children’s books are about animals and pets than adult books. The success of Krypto apparently inspired many more DC super pets.

Beppo

Beppo the Super Monkey from Krypto showed up later. Krypto had super intelligence for a dog which meant he had human intelligence on Earth. This in turn means Beppo should be pretty smart, a lot smarter than Krypto, that’s for sure, but we never see any evidence of this difference in intelligence in the Super family stories of the time. The way these two animals show up at Superboy’s doorstep is hilarious.

Jor El, Superman’s father, presumably a great and compassionate man, rockets his sons pet dog into space to test his rocket to Earth! Beppo is also rocketed into the void by Jor El. I think if my dad used my dog for a dangerous experiment that led to the dog’s seeming demise, then I might be a little angry about this. Superboy never shows any ill feelings about his father’s actions whatsoever. I can accept Beppo being hurled into the void since he is a monkey and we assume specifically purchased to test the rocket. Krypto is another matter. Can’t Jor El find some stray dog at the dog pound on Krypton? Jor El has to use his son’s pet dog? Given that Krypto and Beppo have human intelligence you would also assume they would hate Jor El but this point is never brought up either.

Dogs are supposed to have a sense of smell 1,000 times more powerful than a human being. Both Superboy and Krypto have super smell but presumably Krypto’s super smell would be a 1,000 times more powerful than that of Superboy. Superboy fought some pretty sorry villains, mostly petty crooks, compared to Superman, and many times the Super Boy bad guys gave him the slip since he had super powers and they didn’t. Superboy never ever used his own sense of smell to track a crook.

The use of super smell is pretty much ignored during the silver age by both DC and Marvel. A current poll at the Comic Vine puts Superman at the top of the super smell list

One could argue this is a recent development and Superboy did not have super smell but his dog could still be used to track bad guys. Later Wolverine, a Marvel superheroe, will use super smell to pursue bad guys and figure out the true identity of a shape shifter. Mystique, is an enemy of the X-Men, and can change her appearance and thus fool the other X-Men but not Wolverine as demonstrated dramatically in the first X-Men movie. Superboy never used Krypto to track a bad guy down using scent. Instead Super Boy relies one hundred percent on flying around and using his super vision and if the crooks are smart enough to hide in a lead shielded place then they get away.

Steaky

Supergirl later acquired a super cat called Streaky. Streaky was a normal Earth cat that was exposed to X-kryptonite and acquired super powers. Streaky was not poisoned to death but instead became a super cat. Super girl also managed to acquire a super horse called Comet. Comet was not from Krypton but was a centaur turned into a super horse by Circe, the sorceress, and this meant that Comet was invulnerable to Kryptonite. Comet had the power of telepathy unlike the other super pets. Just as a horse is more powerful physically than a man, Comet was presumably more powerful physically than Superman physically. This meant Comet was the most powerful character of the Superman family. Comet as a character is worth analyzing more closely.

Comet

Comet was in love with Supergirl! Comet even had an affair with Supergirl when he was temporarily a man. Supergirl also rides Comet into battle. Interestingly, Superman never rides Comet. I don’t think most men would like to literally ridden by the object of their affections but maybe I am wrong about this. I suppose, sooner or later, the DC Imprint, Vertigo, will do a reboot of Comet or even all the super pets, with more mature themes explored.

The Superman family inspired the creation of a Batman family. Superman is a family guy. Batman is at his best when he is a loner and does not need a Batman family. Batman associates perhaps but not a family. Oh well, they had Batman fighting aliens in the same time period. If Superman has a dog then so must Batman. Batman adopted a dog called Bat-Hound. Bat-Hound was a normal German Sheppard that wore a mask. Actually, Bat-Hound was not the stupidest member of the silver age Batman family by any means. Police use police dogs and Batman is kind of a super policeman and the ability of a dog to act as a hound and follow a scent could be useful to Batman in a pursuit situation. Batman did use Bat-Hound to track criminals using the dog’s sense of smell! Very recently, Batman used the current incarnation of Krypto, who has normal canine intelligence, to track down a crook with his sense of smell. Further proof, if needed, that Batman is smarter than Superman or at least Superboy. Bat-Hound and Streaky did appear on Krypto’s animated series.

Other superheroes of that time period also had super pets but they were extremely minor characters. The Atom had a bird that he rode to battle called Ms. Mina. Aquaman has a regular aquarium of finny friends but I would put the giant seahorses Aquaman and Aqualad rode at the top of his super pet list. This lack of Justice League super pets meant that a Justice League of Super Pets was not possible but the creation of a super pet club was possible using another angle.

Proty II

Superboy and Supergirl belonged to something called the Legion of Superheroes in the 30^th century. There were over 20 something legionnaires but only one super pet in the bunch. Chameleon Boy had a super pet called Proty II. Proty II was a big yellow blob that could shape shift. Not much of a super power I supposed but adding him to the Legion of Super Pets meant that club wasn’t exclusively a Superman family club. Proty also had the power of telepathy like Comet. Poor Proty, surrounded by super pets with at least a half dozen super powers and all he can do is shape shift. The situation was probably difficult for Proty to say the least. Supergirl meets a descendant of Streaky, called Whizzy, in her first adventure with the Legion of Superheroes and the descendant can talk unlike Streaky. This character is never seen again but logically a talking super cat would be a welcome addition to the Legion of Super Pets.

Adventure Comics 322

I have included the cover of Adventure #322 above. Comet and Proty are the only two members that have telepathy as a superpower and very appropriately are the only two talking to each other via thought balloons, the comic book version of telepathy. The plaques at the table conference table give Krypto and Streaky names but Comet and Beppo are simply referred to as super-horse and super-monkey and their names are not used. I guess only some pets rate an actual name on their plaque.

Lockjaw

Lockjaw is the leader of the Pet Avengers. Lockjaw can teleport, has super strength, and is a giant. The Avengers consist of Lockheed, Redwing, Ms. Lion, Zabu, Niels the Cat, and Throg. The biggest difference between Lockjaws team and the Legion is that Lockjaw’s team has pets that do not have super powers. The members that have powers are Lockheed, Zabu and Throg. Zabu is a sabretooth lion. Lockheed is a miniature dragon about the size of a cat that can fly, has very tough hide and can exhale fire. Throg is a frog version of Thor and probably has about one tenth the power of Thor or maybe even a lot less. The other super pets are normal animals. Niels the Cat aka Hairball, generates a kinetic energy field, like his owner Speedball, and this means he can bounce around and is super slippery. Cats are pretty slippery anyway so I think catching Niels would not be easy.

Redwing is a hawk that works with the Falcon and at least has super hero experience. Ms. Lion is a rather silly dog that belongs to Aunt May, the Aunt of Spiderman, and would probably get destroyed in a fight with even a normal street mutt. Ms. Lion has ribbons in her hair! However, Ms. Lion did sacrifice her life to save Hairball and was only revived later by the power of the infinity gems. So how would a battle between the Legion of Super Pets and Lockjaw’s Super Pet Avengers turn out? The two super pet teams have both claimed a particular park in the New York as their territory. Krypto and Streaky have clearly marked the park as their territory! The Marvel Avengers try to argue that the park should be open to everyone but Krypto promptly responds human concepts such as sharing territory have nothing to do with animals that live by a different code.

Comet knows what is going to happen next and wants nothing to do with the events that will follow. Comet has known Krypto for years and years and knows that he is ruthless when it comes to defending his territory. Comet, as mentioned, is a centaur in animal guise and has had it hanging around a bunch of animals. Comet is also thousands of years old and is sick of baby sitting the other super pets especially Beppo who he suspects was driven insane by his years alone in space. Beppo is not the only member of the super pets that might have psychological problems. Comet is sick of Krypto’s obsession with dinosaur bones that are obviously rock and not bone. Comet is sick of Streaky getting high on catnip all the time. Comet is sick of being ridden by Supergirl, actually he doesn’t mind that part so much but still. Most of all Comet is sick of how all of them refuse to learn how to use a toilet. The Legion headquarters stinks to high heaven. Comet flies off to a far off planet governed by intelligent horse creatures that have achieved space travel and are more advanced technologically than the humans on Earth. Comet misses Super Girl but when elected king of the planet, due to his many super deeds, gets over it.

The Legion of Super Pets looks at the sorry underpowered Avengers team that is giving them a hard time. All the other animals on Earth have enough sense to treat them like the top dog, top cat or whatever and decide and example needs to be made once and for all. Streaky goes after Zabu the sabretooth and Zabu puts up a valiant struggle but Streaky is about a million times stronger than Zabu and invulnerable to boot. Streaky grabs the back of Zabu’s neck with her teeth and rattles him like a rag dog until Zabu’s neck is broken. Streaky feels a little sorry since Zabu was kind of hot.

Krypto chases Niels all over town and despite superspeed and superflight and super smell has a hard time even touching Niels much less fighting him. Krypto loses interest in the chase and Niels gets away to fight another day. Krypto returns to the park and bites Ms. Lions throat and she promptly dies. Throg zaps Krypto with lightning and the lighting actually hurts due to its magical origin and the vulnerability of Krptonians to magic that may even be higher than that of normal humans. Krypto decides to not take any chances and uses his ultimate weapon, heat vision. Krypto zaps Throg with his heat vision. Even Thor would be in trouble but a frog is especially vulnerable to heat vision. The amphibian quickly dehydrates and dies. Streaky flies after Redwing, the hawk, and swats him out of the sky with fatal results to Redwing.

Lockheed flies towards Streaky and breathes fire all over Streaky. Streaky is grateful since the flames remove a lot of dirt she had accumulated during the battle. Superman uses a super flamethrower at his Fortress of Solitude to clean his uniform and Streaky always thought this was a pretty good idea. Streaky has never told Krypto that she finds his body smell to be too much and wishes he would learn to clean himself with his tongue like she does. Streaky slashes Lockheed throat with her claws and Lockheed bleeds to death.

Proty turns into a bush and avoids the battle. The Avengers don’t have a chance! Krypto tells the rest of his team to hold off on attacking, the leader, Lockjaw since he wants to save that pooch for last. Krypto is going to teach Lockjaw who is top dog once and for all. The Legion surrounds Lockjaw. Lockjaw looks at the mutilated bodies of his friends and vows revenge. Lockjaw teleports the Legion and himself to a Kryptonian style planet and all the super pets lose their powers except Proty. “If only Comet hadn’t abandoned them”, thinks Krypto just before he loses his super intelligence and the ability to formulate full sentences.

Lockjaw has super canine strength in his jaw and at one time locked down on the Thing’s arm and the Thing could not get away. I would estimate Lockjaw is eight feet from nose to tail and probably weighs in excess of six hundred pounds. Basically Lockjaw is a giant bulldog. Lockjaw chomps all the Kryptonian super pets to death. Proty turns into a local shrub in order to hide from the wrath of Lockjaw but Lockjaw as a dog easily sniffs him out and chomps his head off or rather the upper part of his body since Proty doesn’t really have a head. Lockjaw promptly spits Proty out of his mouth since Antareans taste like plastic mixed with detergent. Lockjaw doesn’t mind eating the odd robot now and then but Proty just doesn’t taste good.

The Marvel team wins but a terrible cost!

After I wrote this post Marvel published The Marvel Pets Handbook. The writers of this handbook graciously admit that their “Distinguished Competitor” (DC) had a head start in the super pet area but that Marvel is taking the lead in this category and I have to agree. The handbook includes entries for

Ant-Man’s Ants, Ape, Aragorn, Beasts of Berlin, Bill & Don, Blaze the Wonder Collie, Brightwind, Cerberus, Collector’s Creatures, Cosmo, Cr’ree, Currs, Deuce, Devil Dinosaur, Diablo, Droog, Ebony, Freki & Geri, Frogs of Central Park, Garm, Giganto, Hell Storm’s Demon-Steeds, Hellcow, Hellhorse, Ina & Briri, Kerberos, Kraven the Hunter’s Menagerie, Krill, Lobo, Lockheed, Lockjaw, Man-oo, Max, Mole Man’s Monsters, Monkey Joe, Munin & Hugin, Niels, Nimo, Old Lace, Outcasts, Princess Python’s Pythons, Preyy, Puppy, Red Ghosts’ Apes, Redwin, Saint, Sassafras, Sleipnir, Strider, Tippy-Toe, Toothgnasher & Toothgrinder, Valinor, Valykrior Steeds, Vixen, Watchdog, Zabu, and Zar. There is even an appendix of Cowboy Horses of the West and another appendix of miscellaneous pets. This handbook should really be titled “Marvel Animal Handbook” since the entries go way beyond just super-pets and mention just about every animal that has ever appeared in the Marvel universe and had a name and even some unamed animals.

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