Batman – Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot.
Batman – To the Bat-pole Robin
Beast – Oh my stars and garters
Captain America – Avengers Assemble
Captain Marvel – Shazam
Colossus – Bozhe Moi
Colossus – By the White Wolf
Colossus – Lenin’s Ghost
Conan – By Crom
Deadpool – Ready to die
Doctor Horrible – I have a PhD in Horribleness
Dr. Strange – By the Hoary hosts of Hoggoth
GI Joe – Go Joes
Green Lantern – In brightest day in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight Let those who worship evils might beware my power–Green Lantern’s light
Hulk – Don’t make me angry… You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry
Hulk – Hulk Smash
Human Torch – Flame On
Judge Dredd –I am the law
Juggernaut – I’m Unstoppable
Lilandra – Sharra and Kythri have mercy
Lobo – Bite me fanboy
Lone Ranger – Hi-Yo Silver…away
Luke Cage – Sweet Christmas
Mighty Mouse – Here I come to Save the Day
Mr. Terrific – Fair Play
Nightcrawler – Mein Gott
Robin – Holy _____, Batman
Spider-Man – It’s your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Spider-Man – My Spider-Sense is tingling.
Spider-Man – With great power comes great responsibility
Stan Lee – Excelsior
Storm – By the goddess
Sub Mariner – Imperius Rex
Superman – Great Krypton
Superman – Great Rao
Superman – Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman
Superman – Truth, Justice and the American Way
Superman – Up, up, and away
Superman (Perry White) – Great Caesar’s ghost
Teen Titans – Teen Titans, Go
Teen Titans – Titans Together
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Cowabunga
The Joker – Why so serious?
The Riddler – Riddle me this
The Shadow – Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows
The Thing – Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew
The Tick – Spoon
The Tick (Arthur) – Not the face not the face
Thing – It’s Clobbering Time
Thing – What a revoltin development this is
Thor – Odin’s beard
Underdog – When Polly’s in trouble, I am not slow. It’s hip hip hip, and away I go
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 31st 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 31st 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 31st 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.
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, 1st 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
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.
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 Squareis 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.
The main superheroes of the Terra Obscura universe include Adam the Ape, American the Crusader, Captain Future, Doc Strange, Fighting Spirit, Fighting Yank (I), the Ghost, Grim Reap, Lance Lewis, Space Detective, the Liberator, Magnet, Miss Masque, Mystico and Princess Pantha. All the characters are based on characters that Nedor Comics published in the 1940s. Moore seems to be taking a break from his more serious works here and just wants to have some fun. The Terra Obscura gang is comic book camp at its best/worst. I get it. I wonder how many younger readers do. You have outrageous characters like Adam the Ape side by side with the Space Detective. Moore criticizes such juxtapositions in his twilight piece (http://foxhugh.com/twilight-of-the-superheroes-by-alan-moore/). In particular, Moore mentions the absurdity of putting Sgt. Rock side by side with the Legion of Superheroes. Moore makes the material a little darker in that the Terror has been killed by an evil nearly omnipotent machine and death of major heroes really only becomes acceptable in the eighties with the death of Marvel’s Phoenix and after that becomes almost common place due to market response. The death of Superman series is the ultimate example of how market forces drive comic books rather than aesthetic logic. The fact that Superman was not actually dead didn’t stop DC from making millions from a line that was moribund even if the character was not. All in all characterization is not up to Moore’s usual standards.
Doc “Tom” Strange is a doppelganger of Tom Strong from another Earth billions of miles away. Doc Strong points out that the adventures of the heroes on Terra Obscura are described in comic books on his Earth. Tom Strong shows Doc Strange a comic book with a cover of the actual source material. There is not only a comic book within a comic book but a comic book that points directly to the source material. Tom Strong is more of a pulp fiction hero and very similar to Doc Savage. Doc Strange is more similar to Superman. The two superheroes look alike and the superman version meets the pulp fiction version of itself.
The absurdity of heroes of vastly different power levels interacting in a more or less equal manner is taken to new heights. Tom Strong once fought and defeated Doc Strange using atomic gloves! The atomic gloves are basically supped up brass knuckles. Doc Strange has literally crossed billions of miles of interstellar distance over a period of decades without food, water or sleep and therefore can withstand the extreme rigors of space but can be knocked out by atomic gloves by a character that maybe has the strength of ten men! I think Moore is poking fun at the convention that any superhero stands some chance in a battle with any other superhero regardless of power levels. Daredevil fighting the Submariner and later the Hulk comes to mind.
The WizKids superhero game tries to incorporate this crazy comic book logic into their minis game. I pitted the Hulk against Batman. Batman was able to knock out the Hulk with a batarang! Our group consisted of hard core D&D mini enthusiasts were such happenings are impossible and we never played the game again but later I thought about what happened and realized this is the way a comic book universe operates rather than a D&D universe.
I give this reboot a rank of five of the five reboots looked at. This means Terra Obscura is at the bottom of the pack but Moore’s worst comic book generally surpasses 99% of the comic book material out there and I would definitely recommend this series to a fellow comic book reader especially one the revels in the kitsch factor of comic books.
The main superheroes of the Albion universe include Bad Penny, Brian’s Brain, Captain Hurricane, Charlie Peace, the Cloak, Cursitor Doom, the House of Dolmann, the Dwarf , Eagle-Eye, Faceache, Grimly Feendish, Janus Stark, Jason Hyde, Kelly’s Eye, Martha’s Monster Make-Up, Mytek the Mighty, Queen of the Seas, Robot Archie, Rubberman, the Spider, Tri-Man and Zip Nolan. Alan Moore’s daughter is credited with being one of the creators of the Albion Universe and I am sure this is the case but the hand of the master is clearly in evidence. The Albion universe highlights the ability of Alan Moore to take the most sketchy superhero source material and raise the quality of this material to another level. Chronologically this is Moore’s latest reboot and is only dealt with first because these posts are organized alphabetically. Moore took a group of superheroes published by Fleetway press in the 1960’s in Great Britain and gave them new life. These comic books were never distributed in the US so they would be totally unfamiliar to US audiences and even readers in England.
I remember talking to a British friend of mine about the series after buying and reading the graphic novel that collected the series. My friend is a fellow comic book fanatic and he had no idea what I was talking about despite my descriptions of the various characters. After he borrowed the graphic novel from me he said “Yeah, yeah. I read some of these characters back when I was a kid but totally forgot about them”. I have spent time in London and spent a lot of my time in comic book shops, to the chagrin of my wife at the time, ex-wife now, perhaps there is a relation between the two events, and of course was more interested in stuff from England than stuff from the US. To my chagrin, the people working in the comic book stores pointed me to Judge Dredd stuff that is easily available in the US in the form of graphic novel reprints. I didn’t run into any Fleetway stuff back then and I am a fairly obsessive person when it comes to finding weird comic books.
I was vaguely aware of the Fleetway stuff since as a kid in Venezuela in the 1960s I was friends with a kid from England and read some of that stuff in his house. The publication quality was far below US standards. A lot of the strips were black and white! They were in a tabloid format. The covers were on regular paper rather than slick! Still, like Moore I have always had an interest in obscure super hero universes, the more obscure the better, even as a youth and did read his collection avidly.
Some of the original material from the 1960s is also included in the graphic novel and this helped me dredge up memories of those comic books. As I have stated in the introduction, comic books of that time period were much more innocent and light hearted than comic books today. I have started collected Marvel Essentials and DC Showcase editions which reprint a lot of stuff I read as a kind in the sixties, and going down memory lane is fun, but I am often amazed I could be entertained by such simplistic and juvenile material but then have to remind myself that I was a juvenile back then! Even by US sixties standards the Fleetway stuff is even more light hearted and many of the strips would have to classified as comedy rather than drama.
In particular, Captain Hurricane has undergone a radical reboot! The original sixties Captain Hurricane was more like a Popeye character than a super hero. In Moore’s reboot, Captain Hurricane has been turned into a dark British version of the Captain America’s super soldier story. Captain Hurricane is the only successful subject of an experimental procedure that killed over 300 other subjects. Furthermore, the process turned Captain Hurricane into a homicidal maniac who during rages is capable of killing whole platoon of Nazis with his bare hands in the most brutal manner imaginable. Alan Moore does some other interesting things with the other characters.
Rubberman is a major character in the Albion universe and as far as I can tell he was an obscure character in an obscure superhero universe and I think his importance in the Moore reboot is indicative of a feeling on Moore’s part that super stretching is an important super power that is generally underestimated except by the greats. The Elongated Man and Plastic Man are prominent in Frank Miller’s, The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Frank Miller is the second greatest comic book writer ever, after Moore, but a distant second in my opinion. Batman states that Plastic Man has the power to kill us all i.e. Batman and Elongated Man together. Batman is a first tier super hero and a master of assessing combat abilities so this comment is very interesting. Batman is talking for Miller and stating this type of power can be very dangerous. Most writers have not taken super stretching very seriously and have exploited this power for comic effect rather than thinking this power gives great durability, a means of escape from any prison and the ability to inflict great harm. Plastic Man has generally been treated as a funny character and not as a dangerous character. Elastic Lad, Jimmy Olsen’s super hero persona, generally had funny adventures. Elongated Man engaged in amateur sleuthing and fought common criminals rather than super villains except when teamed up with the Flash. Superheroes with super stretching as a power generally don’t get much respect. The big exception is Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four who is a heavy weight. I agree with Moore that super stretching is probably the second most underestimated super power.
The most underestimate super power is super speed. A common “what if fight” is between the Hulk and Superman. If Superman can dodge bullets then he can certainly dodge blows from the Hulk or from anyone without super speed yet he never does this when fighting opponents with super strength but without super speed. Superman should be able to dodge every blow by the Hulk and deliver every blow he aims at the Hulk but I guess this would not be a very fun comic book battle.
Part of the story involves the main character trying to track down old comics that are hard to find. We later learn that the comic books actually portray real events! In a twist one of the funnier and more juvenile comic books portrays, perhaps the most dark and evil character in this universe. This is a consistent characterization thread. There is the character as portrayed in the comic books and the actual character. There is also a Machiavellian angle. The British government employed the Spider to round up or destroy all the super powered heroes and villains and this same government then betrayed the Spider. The surviving heroes and villains are put in common gulag rather than separated since as far as the government is concerned they are all guilty of the same sin of creating disorder. Moore is a student of power politics and this is reflected in many of his works.
V is for Vendetta, possibly his best work after the Watchmen, explores the relationship between fascism and anarchy and is one of the most, if not the most, political mainstream comic books ever published. Is fascism justified to prevent anarchy? Do ends justify the means? The Albion series in contrast to some of Moore’s other works does not pose any deeper question but therefore cannot be put in the same league as the Watchmen and V is for Vendetta.
On the other hand, Moore’s level of characterization has never been better. Subtle differences between British and American thinking about the role of authority are explored using the conversations between the director of the gulag and a CIA agent sent from homeland security to evaluate the gulag’s security. The heroes and villains are old men who have spent decades behind bars and this has affected their thinking and therefore their speech and behavior. The old men look and act like old men. Generally in comic books the younger version and the older version of the same character are indistinguishable except for the fact they are drawn differently. There is also great use of British expressions that clearly make the reader feel they are in England based on the dialogue. Not the usual “Jolly Good Batman” banter that is so common in comic books. In Albion different characters of different social classes do speak differently as is the case in England to a greater extent than the US. Of the five superhero reboots, I would rank the Albion reboot as being first in characterization and a rank of number four of the five universes!
I probably own every issue of the short lived Valiant Universe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valiant_Comics) and in my view the demise of this line was a sad day in comic book history. The Valiant line was conscious attempt to make a better super hero for reasons I will outline in the introduction.
One way to arrange comic book universe battles is to match up opponents that are more less doppelgangers of each other. This is what happened in the DC vs. Marvel miniseries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_vs._Marvel)
that matched up such doppelgangers as Aquaman (DC) and Namor the Submariner (Marvel). The advantages of the doppelganger approach are many. The main one is you get contests between more or less equal heroes. Secondly, you can keep a score card. Maybe universe X has the strongest hero but Universe Y has the fastest one. DC may have more heavy hitters in the area of magic but Marvel has more heavy hitters in the area of the power cosmic. You put the top mage of the DC Universe, Mordru, against the top mage in the Marvel universe, Dr. Strange, and of course Mordru wins but in another category such as the power cosmic, DC wins. The Silver Surfer, for example, easily defeats the Black Racer. I did not apply the doppelganger approach to my earlier D&D vs. Marvel post and am trying to do this with a future post, DC vs. D&D.
I have tried to apply this logic to the DC vs. Valiant post as much as possible. The problem is that many of the DC characters were created in simpler times when the one gimmick rule applied. The Flash was the fast guy. Green Lantern had a power ring. If they had any other talents or weapons then this never came up. Thanks to Stan Lee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_lee), at Marvel, heroes starting having something resembling characterization and DC followed suit but not to the same degree as Marvel.
This use of characterization meant that psychological stuff could impact the fight not just their super powers. This so called Marvel Revolution started with the Fantastic Four. The Thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_%28comics%29), of the Fantastic Four, is not as strong as the Hulk or Thor but he is a disciplined fighter. When the Champion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champion_of_the_Universe), an Elder of the Universe, challenges the “strongest” heroes of the Marvel universe to a boxing match, the Thing wins not the Hulk or Thor. The Thing wins because he follows boxing protocol. The Hulk just goes nuts and is dismissed from the ring. Thor pulls out his hammer and is also dismissed for breaking the rules. In Secret Wars II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Wars_II), the Thing single handily stops and army of evil doers from touching the Beyonder through sheer will power rather than strength. Ben Grim, the alter-ego of the Thing is a tough New York from the wrong side of the tracks who never gives up. Daredevil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daredevil_%28Marvel_Comics%29) has gone up against the likes of the Hulk and Namor and his determination to keep fighting to the end have enabled him to achieve pyrrhic victories against both these Marvel powerhouses.
Later still, heroes started carrying weapons! This makes total sense to me. If I was the Green Lantern I would still carry a 45 to shoot those giant yellow eagles that seem to be all over the place when you are a Green Lantern. The Green Lantern ring is helpless against yellow colored objects. Interestingly 45’s don’t share this weakness. Green Lantern could have just plugged any number of yellow colored menaces during his career. Better yet why not get one of those nifty utility belts from my buddy Batman? If I was the Flash I would definitely grab some shrunken and knifes that I could hurtle at super speed like the Whirlwind, of the Marvel universe, eventually did. Ok the Flash is a good guy and can’t use bladed weapons that kill but how about rubber balls that he throws at varying levels of super speed for different levels of lethality?
The Valiant universe is a later more complex universe than DC and Marvel and this complexity makes doppelgangers harder to find than between DC and Marvel. The Batman aversion to guns, a prime example of the weapon monomania that plagues comic books, does not exist in the Valiant universe. Most of the Valiant heroes will grab and use weapons as opportunity allows. Being a martial arts enthusiast and big fan of weapons of opportunity I like this characteristic of the Valiant universe. The X-O Manowar, a Valiant hero for whom a post will be written, is a barbarian that understands swords and does not fully understand super armor, when abducted by Aliens, but understands a weapon is a weapon and you might as well grab a good one when you can.
line, often have a category of villain they go after rather than just fighting bad guys in general and this is characteristic is hard to match in the DC or Marvel universe. There will be 22 posts in this series including this one. In comic books there is a fashion to start a series with zero rather than #1 and I like to be fashionable. Anyway, this is the numbering system of the major arcana of the Tarot and therefore good enough for me.
The Valiant heroes covered in the series will include:
I have about 100 plus “What if fights” planned for this blog so stay tuned. We have to assume that for these fights to even happen both fighters live in a common universe. Anyway this is the assumption I will make in all “What if fights” since the whole how they meet thing is repetitive and tiresome. The same assumption will be used in the “What if dates” post the second major category of this blog site.