What is a monster? According to the online version of Merriam-Webster:
“1 a: an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure b: one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character. “
Using definition (b), then just about every super villain would be a monster. If you add (a) then you still have super villains like Doctor Doom who are deformed. IGN already wrote an excellent article about DC versus Marvel super villains and I do not want to go over ground already covered. This article instead will focus on big monsters. The ultimate archetype of the big monster would be Godzilla. There is even a particular word in Japanese for this sort of monster: daikaijū. Monsters generally are big but how big does a monster have to be a daijuku? I think over 20 feet and if the monster can wrap his/her hand around your waist with one hand like King Kong picking up a damsel in distress then that’s the clincher.
DC
The Silver age was all about big monsters and although Kirby’s Silver age monsters over at Marvel get all the attention, you can actually find a ton of big monsters at DC if you know where to look.
Major Heroes
Aquaman faced three major giant sea monsters during the Silver age. The following Aquaman, volume 1, issues have a giant monster: #7- The Creatures from Atlantis, #20 – Two-Headed Beast, and #56 – The Creature that Devoured Detroit. All the monsters are one-shots and not memorable. Aquaman is often fighting a whale, giant jellyfish or giant shark or whatever but these are little two panel exercises not even worth mentioning. The author looked at 61 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 61 / 3 = 20.3
Batman has faced at least 20 giant monsters. In Batman volume 1, Batman fought: #75 – Gorilla Boss, #104 the Creature from 20,000 Fathoms, #134 – Rainbow Creature, #138 – Sea Beast, #142-Tezcatlipoca, #143 – Bat-Hound and the Creature, and #162 – The Batman Creature.
In Detective Comics, Batman fought giant monsters in #252-Creature from the Green Lagoon, #255 – Robot Dinosaurs, #270 – Creature from Planet X, #272 – Menace of the Crystal Creature, #277 – Jigsaw Creature from Space, #278 – Giant, # 279 – Creatures that Stalked Batman, #282 – Cave Eel, #288 – the Multiple Creature, # 291 – Creature of the Bat Cave, # 295 – Secret of the Beast Painting, # 297 – Beast of Koba Bay, and #303 – Murder in Skyland. The author looked at 667 Batman issues and 800 Detective Comics issues for a total of 1,467. The ratio of issues to monsters is 1467 / 20 = 73.35
Green Lantern faced four monsters in the Silver age in Green Lantern, volume 1, in issues: #6 – Giant monster on Xudar, #8 – Giant Gila Monster from the Future, #30 – Dinosaurs, #34 – Giant Iguana, #53 – Giant Alien. All the monsters are one-shots and not memorable. The author looked at 201 issues to find these four giants monsters. The ratio of issues to giant monsters is 201 / 4 = 50.25
The Legion of Super-Heroes deals with several alien and interstellar monsters in volume 1. The Monster Master even created the Legion of Super Monster’s which includes: the earthquake beast that can cause earthquakes, the eye monster can shoot lightning, heat-vision, x-rays, and blinding light, the mirror monster can reflect any energy force off its shiny armor-plated hide, the drill beast can drill through anything. Finally, the omnibeast can travel in space, air, land, or sea. Computo is yet another giant robot conqueror created by Braniac 5 who kills one of the bodies of Triplicate Girl in the Silver age and death in the Silver age is rare and special plot wise. The Sun-Eater is probably the biggest, baddest, giant monster in the DC universe. Galactus is the devourer of worlds but the Sun-Eater is a devourer of suns! The Sun-Eater is a weapon created by the Controllers, a super race in the DC universe and is generally mindless. Lighting Lad loses his arm to the Super-Moby Dick of Space in Action Comics #332. Any sort of permanent injury was almost unheard of in the Silver age so the giant monster is an integral part of an important story.
Superboy faced Validus when he was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Validus is actually stronger than Superboy and it took the combined might of Superboy, Mon-El and Ultraboy to defeat Validus. The Silver age Superman and Superboy are much much stronger than the Modern Age Superman. Validus is probably the second most powerful giant monster in the DC universe after the Sun-Eater which did defeat Validus (Adventure Comics #353). Three important, powerful, giant monsters come out of the Legion of Super-Heroes including Computo, the Sun-Eater and Validus. The Legion of Super-Heroes breaks the pattern of many one-shot monsters that are not memorable in order to create monsters of great power that are memorable and an important part of the DC Universe history.
Superboy faced a few giant monsters as well. In Adventure Comics #30 there is a creature quite similar to Jimmy Olsen’s transformation into a Giant Turtle Man in Jimmy Olsen #53. Superboy fought a giant Thought Monster of Krypton as a baby and a boy in Superboy #87 and #102 respectively. In Adventure Comics #185, Superboy fought a Griffin. In Adventure Comics #196, Superboy fought Kingorilla, a giant ape.
Superman’s most famous giant monster is Titano the Super-Ape who was like King Kong with Green Kryptonite vision. In Adventure #295, the world is introduced to Bizzaro Titano that has Blue Kryptonite vision which is deadly to Bizzaros. Superman has also faced 17 other giant monsters in the pages of Superman including: #78- The Beast from Krypton, #86 – The Dragon from King Arthur’s Court, #110 – Giant Ant, the Flame Dragon of Krypton, #127 – Titano, #138-Titano, # 151-Child of the Beast from Krypton from issue #78, #246 Danger Monster at Work, #324 Titano Returns, #348 Storm God, #357- Cosmic Monster, #379 – Chemo.
In Action Comics, Superman faced monsters in #326 – Legion of Super-Creatures, #343 – Eterno, #502 – Galactic Golem, #516 – Army of Dinosaurs, #519 – Cosmic Creature, #664 – Tyrannosaurus Rex, # 671 – Sea Serpent, and #758 – Rock Lobster. The author looked at 666 Superman issues and 873 Action Comics for a total of 1539 to find the 18 monsters mentioned. The ratio of issues to monsters is 1539 / 18 = 85.5.
Wonder Woman faces 36 giant monsters in Wonder Woman volume 1 during the Silver age including #64 – The 3-D Terror, #66, #87 – Island of Giants, #91 – The Eagle Who Caged People, #97 – Dinosaur, #100 – The Forest of Giants, #105 – The Eagle of Space, #106 – Giants Olympic Contest, #109 – Wonder Girl in Giant Land, #112 – Chest of Monsters, #113 – Invasion of the Sphinx Creatures, #114 – The Monster Express, #116 – Cave of Secret Creatures, #119 – Sea Serpent, #120 – Secret of the Volcano Mt., #121 – The Island-Eater, #123 – Giant Cobra, #128 – Living Seaweed, #135 – The Attack of the Human Iceberg, #138 – Stone Giant, #143 – Fire Breathing Dragon, #145 – Phantom Sea-Beast, #146 – War of the Underwater Giants, #147 – Griffin & Giant Centipede, #148 – Dinosaur in a Department Store, #149 – Giant Flame Creature, #150 – The Phantom Fisher-Bird, #151 – Gooey Monster, #152 – Ice Bird, #154 – Boiling Man, #171 – Trap of the Demon Fish-Man, #233 – Jaws of the Leviathan, #239 – Animated Statue of Liberty, #257 – Dinosaur, #265 – Dinosaurs, and #284 – A Dragon Stalks the Streets. The author looked at 327 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 327 / 36 = 9.083. Wonder woman has the highest number of monsters among major heroes!
The Justice League of America had two memorable giant monsters including Starro and the Shaggy Man. Starro first appeared in Brave and Bold #28 and was the very first super villain that the Justice League of America faced! Starro has reappeared many times since then. The Shaggy Man first appeared in JLA #45 and is another giant monster that reappears several times albeit different persons assume the identity of the Shaggy Man. The Justice League had plenty of one shot monsters as well. The Justice League fought several Dungeons and Dragons type of giant monsters in JLA #2. In JLA #15 the Justice League fights an Easter Island sort of monster. Superman fights a giant purple roman robot in JLA #34. There are also one shot monsters that don’t even rate a proper name in JLA #36, #40, and #52. If you don’t count reappearances of Starro or the Shaggy Man then the Justice League fought eight monsters in 261 issues looked at (261/8 = 32.6).
The Second Tier Heroes
Jack Kirby’s contribution to monsters in the Marvel universe will be discussed in that section of the article but Jack Kirby also created a large number of monsters for the silver age Challengers of the Unknown. The tone was set in one of their earliest adventures in Showcase #7 when they fought a giant robot called Ultivac. In Challengers of the Unknown volume 1 there are giant robots 13 in the following issues: #16 -the Incredible Metal Monster, #18 – Invincible Beast of Tomorrow, #19 Beasts of Tomorrow, #20 Cosmic Powered Creatures, #22 the Creature Challenger Mountain, #26 – Aqua Beast, #27-Volcano Man, # 32 Volcano Man returns, #35 – Moon-Beast, #41 – Quadruple Man, #47 – Sponge Man, #51-Sponge Man returns, and #59-The Petrified Giant. The author looked at 91 issues to find the 13 giant monsters. The ratio of monsters to issues is 91 /13 = 7.
The Silver age Doom Patrol had one giant monster they fought more than once and that was the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. Doom Patrol ,volume 1, had the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man in #89, #93 – Giant Robot, #95 Return of the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, #96 – Giant Jukebox, #97 – Elasti-Girl Transforms to Crystal Giant Menace, #100 – Dinosaur, #103 – Meteor Man, #105 – Mr. 103, #106 – Mr. 103 returns looking like the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, #109 – Mandred the Executioner, #111-Zarox 13 King of the Criminal Cosmos, #113 – Arsenal, #114 – Kor the Conqueror, #115 – The Mutant Master, and #116 – The Galactic Gladiator. The Doom Patrol fought 14 monsters in 39 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 39 / 14 = 2.7.
The Metal Men battled several giant robots that fit the giant monster definition but one of the more famous giant monsters of DC is not a robot: Chemo. Chemo is a collection of chemicals that comes to life. Chemo is vaguely malevolent but mostly mindless. Unlike the giant robots that the Metal Men fought, Chemo survived past the Silver age and made it to the Modern Age. Chemo was a major character in the Infinite Crisis series (2005). Some of the giant robots the Metal Men fought include the Skyscraper Robot, Torgola, the Rebel Robot, Robot Juggernauts, and Volcano Man, who is not a robot. The Doom Patrol and Challengers of the Unknown also fight a Volcano Man but I don’t think this is the same one. The author looked at 56 issues. The Metal Men battled 6 big monsters. The ratio of issues to monster is 56 / 6 = 9.3.
Rip Hunter Time Master in the Silver age is another “B” title that has more than its share of big monsters. Ripe Hunter is a time traveler that seems to find big monsters in every age not just the prehistoric ones. Rip Hunter and his time traveling team fought ten giant monsters. Big monsters are in #1 – 1,000 Year Old Curse, the volcano Creature, #2 – The Alien Beasts from 500 BC, #3 – Giant Octopus sort of creature, #5 – Alien Beast, #7 – Dinosaurs in the past, #8 – Giant Genie, #9 – Alien Flying Creature, #18 – Dinosaur but in the future, 2550 AD, #28 – Rip is turned into a giant monster, and #29 – Giant insects in the present. The author looked at 30 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 30 / 10 = 3.
The Silver age Teen Titans were a second tier super hero team. In the Modern age the Teen Titans became a first tier super hero team and giant monsters disappeared from their pages. In volume 1, the Silver age, Teen Titans giant monsters appeared in the following issues: #1 – The Beast-God of Xochatan, #2 – The Million Year Old Teenager (Giant Caveman), #8 – A Killer Called Honey Bun (Giant Robot), and #32 – A World Gone Mad (Sea Monster). There were four monsters. The author looked at 53 issues of volume 1 of the Teen Titans. The ratio of issues to monsters is 53 / 4 = 13.
Tomahawk is an especially odd Silver age second tier hero in an era of odd heroes. Tomahawk is an American Revolution hero who fights British redcoats and their Native American allies except they are definitely called American Indians in these pre-PC comic books. Tomahawk has the distinction of fighting lots of giant American Indians during the Silver age. Tomahawk fights giant monsters in the following Issues: #46 – The Valley of Giant Warriors (Giant Indians), #58 – The Frontier Dinosaur, #64 – Mystery of the Giant Warrior (Giant Indian), #67 – The Beast from the Deep, #70 – Secret of the Iron Chief (Giant Indian Robot), #73 – Secret of the Indian Sorceress (Giant Sea Serpent), #74 – The Beast from the Labyrinth (Pink Stegosaurus), #75 Master of the Legendary Warrior (Giant Indian with fangs), #78 – Legend of the Sea Beast (Sea Serpent), #82 – Lost Land of the Pale-Face Tribe (Dinosaur), #86 – Tomahawk vs. King Colosso (Giant Ape), #89 – The Terrible Tree Man (Giant Tree Man), #90 – The Ranger vs. the Prisoner in the Pit (Giant Reptile), #91 – The Indian Tribe Below the Earth (Giant Salamander), #92 – The Petrified Sentry of Peaceful Valley (Giant Petrified Indian), The Return of King Colosso (Giant Ape returns), #94 – Rip Van Ranger (Giant Bird), #95 – Tribe Beneath the Sea (Giant Fish), #99 – King Cobweb and his Giant Insects (Giant Insects controlled by Indian), #100 – The Weird Water-Tomahawk (Giant Water Creature), #102 – The Dragon Killers (Dragon), #103 – The Frontier Frankenstein (Giant Frankenstein), #104 – The Fearful Freaks of Dunham’s Dungeon, #105 – Attack of the Gator God (Giant Reptile), #107 – Double-Cross of the Gorilla-Ranger (Giant Ape), #109 – The Caveman Ranger (Dinosaurs), and #115 – The Deadly Flaming Ranger (Giant Flame Creature). The author looked at a 129 issues of Tomahawk. Tomahawk fights giant monsters in 27 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 129 / 27 = 4.7. Tomahawk also has the honor of having fought four giant Indians! I think this has to be some sort of hero record.
Blackhawk had several one-shot monsters including Blackhawk #120 (Metal Cyclops), #140 (Tyrannosaurus Rex), #146 (Giant Mechanical Scorpion), #148 (Flying Serpent), #150 (Giant Eagle), #152 (Octi-Ape, Ape with eight limbs), #154 (Beast that Time Forgot), #164 (Twin Creatures of Blackhawk Island), #193 (Valley of the Angry Giants, Giant Mesoamerican Indians), #198 (Giant Nazi Robot), and #226 (Secret Monster of Blackhawk Island). The author looked at 96 issues and found monsters in 11 of them. The ratio of monsters to issues is 8.7.
Speculative Fiction Anthologies
In the Silver age both DC and Marvel had speculative fiction anthologies and these were the true homes of monsters and big monsters in general. The vast majority of monsters in both the DC and Marvel universes were created in these speculative fiction anthologies.
House of Mystery, volume 1, has big monsters in the following issues: #41 – Brontosaurus, #53 – Forbidden Statues, #70 – The Creatures from Nowhere, #71 – Moon Goddess, #74 – Dragon of Time Square, #79 – Creature of Inner Space, #80 – Earth’s Super Prisoner, #85 – Easter Island Monsters and similar to Marvel’s the Things on Easter Island, #86 – The Beast that Slept 1,000 Years, #87 – The Menacing Pet from Pluto, #89 – Secret of the Cave Light, #90 – The Runaway Bronc from Venus, #91 – The Forbidden Face of Fa-San, #96 – Pirate Brain, #99 – The Beast with Three Lives, #101 – The Magnificent Monster, #102 – Cellmate to a Monster, #104 – The Seeing Eye Man, #107 – Captives of the Alien Fishermen, #109 – Secret of the Hybrid Creatures, #110 – The Beast that Stalked Through Time, #111 – Operation Beast-Slayer, #112 – The Menace of Craven’s Creatures, #113 – Prisoners of Beast Asteroid, #114 – The Movies from Nowhere, #118 – Secret of the Super-Gorillas, #119 – The Deadly Gift from the Stars, #120 – The Cat-Man of Kanga Peak, #123 – Lure of the Decoy Creature, #125 – The Fantastic Camera Creature, #130 – Alien Creature Hunt, #131 – Vengeance of the Geyser God, #132 – Beware the Invisible Master, #133 – The Captive Queen of Beast Island, #134 – The Secret Prisoner of Darkmoor Dungeon, #138 – The Creature Must Die, #140 – Giant Alien, #141 – The Alien Gladiator, #143 Martian Manhunter’s sidekick Zook becomes a giant monster, #149 – Giant Insects, #152 Martian Manhunter fights a giant alien named the Creature King, #153 – Martian Manhunter fights the Giants who slept 1,000 years, and #154 – Prisoner of the Purple Demon. House of Mystery had 46 giant monsters. The author looked at 300 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 300 / 46 = 6.5.
House of Secrets, volume 1, had monsters in the following issues: #1 – House of Doom, #11 – The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Growing, #19 – Lair of the Dragonfly, #24 – Beast from the Box, #25 – Secret of the Sea Monsters, #26 – Menace of the Alien Ape, #27 – Secret of the Fossil Egg, #28 – Horse like Monster, #29 – Queen of the Beasts, #30 – Creature City, #31 – Hybrid Monster, #34 – Puzzle of the Plundering Creatures, #37 – Secret of the Captive Creature, #38 – The Fantastic Flower Creatures, #39 – Alien Bird of Prey, #40 – Master of the Space Beasts, #41 – Dinosaur in Times Square, #44 – Valley of Doomed Creatures, #45 – Destiny of Dooms, #47 – Creatures of Camouflage Forest, #48 – Beware the Guardian Beast, #51 – Mystery of the Stolen Creatures, #53 – Mark Merlin’s Giant Double, #55 – Battle of the Titans, #63 – Cave filled with various giant monsters, #69 – Kill the Giant Cats, #71 – Giant Who Once Ruled Earth, #72 – Revolt of the Morloo, and #73 – Eclipso Battles the Sea Titan. House of Secrets had 29 big monsters. The author looked at 153 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 153 / 29 = 5.2.
Strange Adventures did “spawn” one memorable giant amphibian and that is the giant frogs. The frogs appeared in issues #130 and # 155. The giant frogs are pictured below:
Also the Faceless Hunter from Saturn first appeared in issues #124, #142, and #153. The Faceless Hunter from Saturn has made several appearances in the Modern age and even was in a cartoon episode of Batman: Brave and Bold (Siege of Starro! Part Two, Season 2, Episode 15). Also yellow giants with ears shaped like butterflies who collected humans like humans collect butterflies appeared in issues #119 and #159. Giant monsters that appeared in volume one of Strange Adventures include: #7 – Giant Ants, #11 – Serpent, #21 – The Monster that Fished Men, #28 – Indestructible Giant, #30 – The Great Ant Circus, #41 – Dinosaurs, #44 – Giant Plant, #50 – World Wrecker Robot, #52 – Prisoner of the Parakeets, #72 – The Skyscraper came to Life, #76 – The Tallest Man on Earth, #82 – Giants of the Cosmic Ray, #91 – Giant from Jupiter, #97 – Secret of the Space – Giant, #101 – Giant from Stalk, #104 – World of Doomed Spacemen, #112 – Menace of the Size-Changing Spaceman, #113 – Deluge from Space, #118 – The Turtle Men from Space, #119 – Raiders from the Giant World, #120 – Attack of the Oil Demons, #122 – David and the Space Goliath, #123 – Secret of the Rocket-Destroyer, #124 – The Face-Hunter from Saturn, #125 – The Flying Gorilla Menace, #127 – Menace from the Earth Globe, #129 – The Giant Who Stole Mountains, #130 – War with Giant Frogs, #133 – Invisible Dinosaurs, #139 – The Space Roots of Evil, #142 – Return of the Faceless Creature, #151 – Invasion via Radio-Telescope, #153 – Threat of the Faceless Creature, # 155 – Return of the Giants Frogs, #157 -Plight of the Human Cocoons, #159 – The Maze of Time, #165 – Secret of the Insect Men, #167 – Gorko the Night Creature, #168 – The Hand that Erased Earth, #170 – The Creature from Strange Adventures (Infinity Cover), #193 – Zomzu the Living Colossus, and #194 – The Bracelet of Deadly Charms. Some of the monsters already identified were reprinted in later issues of Strange Adventures. Strange Adventures yields 42 giant monsters! The author looked at 232 issues for this article. The ratio of issues to big monster is 232 / 42 = 5.5.
Tales of the Unexpected had big monsters in issues #17 – Moon Beast, #20 – You Stole Our Planet, #36 – Prisoners’ of the Lighthouse Creatures, #40 – Battle of the Colossal Creatures, #48 – The Beast from the Invisible World, #50 – Sun-Creature, #51 – Mercurian Quill Thrower, #52-Guardian Beasts of the Life Stone, #53 – Creature in the Glass Ball, # 54 – Dinosaurs of Space, #55 – Ghost Creatures of Phobos, #57 – The Jungle Beasts of Jupiter, #59-Org, #60-The Beasts from Space Seeds, #61 – Guardians of the Moon Emperor’s Treasure, #63 – Secret of the Space Circus, #65 – The Alien Brat from Planet Byra, #67 – The Beast that Space Ranger Protected, #68 – Prisoner of the Giant Robot, and #70 – Xorog, #201 – Giant Rabbit! Tales of the Unexpected has 21 big monsters. The author looked at 208 issues. The ratio of issues to monsters is 208 / 21 = 9.9.
Conclusion
Overall, the secret to finding big monsters in the DC universe is to focus on the Silver age. Also do not to look in the mainstream hero comics like Aquaman, Batman, Green Lantern and Superman. The range of ratios for first tier heroes is 20.3-90.5.
However, every other issue in the second tier comics hero comics like the Doom Patrol, Metal Men, Rip Hunter Time Master, Teen Titans, Tomahawk, Challengers of the Unknown, and the Sea Devils has big monsters. The range of ratios was 2.7-9.3. So a big monster is more or less ten times more likely to show up in a second tier hero adventure than a first tier hero adventure.
My theory is that the editors felt that if the hero could not sell the magazine then maybe a giant monster plastered on the cover could. Also, one of the defining flaws of the second tier heroes is a lack of a roster of strong recurring super villains. Big monsters were used as a substitute for strong villains and this strategy in hindsight was not very successful.
The speculative fiction anthologies: House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Tales of the Unexpected, and Strange Adventures are the place to find the vast majority of DC monsters. The speculative fiction anthologies are generally called science fiction comic books but I think this is a misclassification. These Silver Age anthologies spanned the spectrum of horror to fantasy to science fiction and actually quite a bit of supernatural fiction. They were the comic book equivalent of the Twilight Zone, definitely speculative fiction rather than the Outer Limits, a more narrowly science fiction show. The monsters in these anthologies span the gamut of supernatural to horror to science fiction monsters. The Vertigo Modern Age reboots of the House of Mystery and Strange Adventures stay far away from giant monsters that are still popular but considered cheesy and not up to the artistic standards of the Vertigo press. The range of ratios for the speculative fiction anthologies was from 5.2-9.9. This range of ratios is similar to the range of second tier heroes. However the range is greater for second tier heroes.
Wonder Woman (9.083 ratio) is an exception to the first tier hero rule. In particular, the Silver age, Wonder Woman was fighting giant men in a large number of issues. More detailed analysis shows that these giants often treat Wonder Woman like a plaything or even jewelry of the giants. All the giants in Wonder Woman probably reflect some weird psychosexual dynamic at work as is often the case with the Wonder Woman title from the Golden age all the way the way to the present. Could some sort of role reversal be at work? Young boys who are sick of being pushed around by their giant mothers derive vicarious pleasure from seeing Wonder Woman being played with by giant men? Or did Wonder Woman just attract the weirdos of the comic book industry?
MARVEL
First of all I want to give special thanks to the Monster Blog! This website is the ultimate online resource for anyone who is interested in the vast number of monsters that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created. These monsters are often referred to as Kirby monsters. The blog lists 210 monsters and almost all of them fit the big monster definition. If you remove all human monsters, monsters that are too small, and imaginary monsters, then are still left with the following list of big monsters:
I have not included Godzilla in the list of giant monsters at Marvel! Godzilla is a Toho Studios monster and his foray into the Marvel universe was poor fit. Marvel no longer has the licensing rights to Godzilla and hopefully this sorry episode in the Marvel Universe is dead, dead, dead, forever. Godzilla could lift 20,000 tons with ease. Thor and the Hulk are 100 ton lifters! So this interloper is about 200 times stronger than the heavyweights of the Marvel Universe! How can Marvel superheroes fight this guy at all? Yet they do rather than being squashed like ants! Suspension of belief is a delicate thing that Godzilla in the Marvel Universe practically destroyed. Just a poor fit on every level. Keep in mind I am the author of Hello Kitty vs. Godzilla so when I find a story to be over the top then that’s saying a lot.
There is a misconception that Marvel has more monsters, especially giant monsters, than DC. DC actually created more monsters during the Silver age than Marvel but they were much less memorable and spread across many titles as one-shots and many of the monsters did not even have names. Ironically, Kirby did have a monster comic book at DC, Challengers of the Unknown, but the fact that this comic book was filled with monsters has been totally ignored until now.
Fing Fang Foom is easily the premiere giant monster at Marvel. Fing Fang Foom has appeared in over 20 issues across the spectrum of Marvel titles. Fing Fang Foom appears in toy form in Iron Man 2008. Fing Fang Foom in the only Kirby monster to be made into a HeroClix giant figure! Fing Fang Foom is arguably one of the more interesting Kirby monsters visually as you can see from the HeroClix figure picture below:
Validus faces off against Fing Fang Foom. Fing Fang Foom can sense that Validus has a the mind of a child and tries to communicate with Validus but Validus is immune to telepathy. Validus rips off one of Fing Fang Foom’s arms with ease. Fing Fang Foom is a genius level strategist and decides it.s time to run for the hills. Fing Fang Foom starts to fly away. Validus does not have the power of flight. Validus zaps Fing Fang Foom from the sky with his unique mental lightning which can even knock out the Silver Age Superboy. Fing Fang Foom decides to die ironically, and as Validus cradles the dying Fing Fang Foom, Fing Fang Foom says, “Rosebud” with his dying breath. Validus doesn’t get the joke and looks for something else to smash.
Superman verbally renounces his US citizenship in Action #900 (The
Incident, pgs 70-78). Superman decides to show up at Azadi square in Tehran. Iranian pro-democracy protestors are in a face-off with Iranian security and Superman flies down and plants himself between the protestors and Iranian security. Iranian security does not fire on the protestors probably because of Superman’s presence. When Superman flies away after 24 hours, one of the protestors offers a rose to an Iranian policeman who has a rifle aimed at the protestor and the Iranian policeman lowers his weapon and accepts the flower.
This upsets the US government so much that a meeting with Superman is demanded Superman meets with a National Security advisor in a park. Superman spots a couple of US government snipers with rifles aimed at him and loaded with kryptonite bullets in winter cameo that he can spot anyway with his infrared vision. The National Security advisor tells Superman the snipers are there just in case because his actions have alarmed the US government. The story is interesting on several levels. Action #900 is acknowledging the current Arab Spring, Superman is engaging in international political activism but most of all renounces his US citizenship because in his words, “truth, justice and the American way. It’s not enough anymore”.
In my post The Myth of Superman Revisited, I comment on Umberto Eco’s critique of Superman. Eco points out that Superman engages in tasks such as catching bank robbers that are a waste of time relative to his potential. Superman could deal with root causes of the human malaise and change fundamental economic and political conditions. In this post I point out that while Superman has kept his boy scout persona, the issue of superheroes taking extreme political action has been explored a great deal since Eco wrote his article. Superman political activism or lack of it is an interesting issue but in this post I want to focus on a legalistic issue about Superman’s renunciation of his US citizenship.
Perhaps Superman cannot renounce his US citizenship since he may be an illegal alien! Superman landed in a cornfield in Kansas and was adopted by the Kent’s but never applied for citizenship and therefore is in the US fraudulently.
In the Silver Age, Superman was given UN citizenship more than once and so this would make Superman citizen of the US since the US is part of UN. The problem with UN citizenship is that it would be an extension of the dual citizenship concept and would mean that Superman would have both the rights and responsibilities of all the countries he is a citizen of. That’s an awful lot of taxes and an awful lot of laws to memorize and follow. Like many Silver Age constructions, the UN citizenship idea can be dismissed as fanciful and irrelevant.
In the Death of Superman story arc, Superman was given honorary US citizenship. The problem is that Superman is an alias not a legal identity. Can you give citizenship to what is essentially a non-person legally? You might even have the very confusing situation whereby Superman is a citizen and not Clark Kent. This seems like legal contradiction that cannot be accepted. So does this mean Superman cannot renounce his US citizenship because he is not a citizen legally in the first place?
Maybe not, the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 allows certain foreign-born,
biological and adopted children of United States citizens to acquire United
States citizenship automatically. The child must have at least one U.S. citizen parent by birth or naturalization, be under 18 years of age (have been born on or after February 27, 1983) live in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent, and be admitted as an immigrant for lawful permanent residence. In addition, if the child is adopted, the adoption must be full and final.
Superman appears to meet all this criteria except for being born on or
before February 27, 1983. So whether or not Superman is a US citizen in the first place is dependent on the date of his birth. Superman is perennially middle
aged, thirty-something. If Superman was born in 1983 then he would be 28 in 2011 and this is unlikely. Therefore Superman is not a US citizen in the first place so his renunciation is invalid!
Even if Superman is a US citizen then renouncing citizenship is a really bad idea. Renunciation of citizenship includes renunciation of all rights and privileges of citizenship. A person who wants to renounce U.S. citizenship cannot decide to retain some of the privileges of citizenship, as this would be logically inconsistent with the concept of renunciation. Only citizens can enter
and leave the US without a visa. Superman would have to apply for a visa every time he landed on US soil! All this time getting a visa will seriously hamper his crime fighting career.
Superman could fly over the US but even that would be problematic. There
is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace (the
boundary between outer space— which is not subject to national jurisdiction—and national airspace), with suggestions ranging from about 30 km
(19 miles) (the extent of the highest aircraft and balloons) to about
160 km (99 miles) (the lowest extent of short-term stable orbits). Superman could apply for a multiple re-entry visa but such a visa probably would not be given to a person who has renounced US citizenship in the first place.
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.
When I was ten years old I lived in Caracas, Venezuela. My parents were both professors and liked to frequent bookstores in Caracas. I saw a cover that interested me because Superman was on the cover. The Spanish title of the books was Apocalípticos e integrados ante la cultura de masas by Umberto Eco. My parents bought me the book and I struggled with the Spanish but mostly looked at the pictures. Years later I would return to the subject matter of the book again!
Umberto Eco (Eco, 1972) analyzed the Superman myth in a very important article that makes several assertions about the Superman mythos and comic books in general. I assert that this analysis is based on how the Superman story used to be. Since then, the Superman story has undergone extreme changes that contradict Eco’s analysis. This paper is an attempt to provide an updated analysis of the Superman mythos. I agree with Eco that the Superman myth is of great importance. The Superman mythos is perhaps the most important mythos in modern American culture. Perhaps far more people can tell you the story of Superman than the story of Hercules. Eco’s paper in turn is the most important analysis of this mythos and thus deserving an update. This paper will also attempt to explain why the Superman mythos has undergone so many extreme changes since the time Eco analyzed the mythos. The changes in the Superman myth tell us a great deal about how society has changed.
Eco asserts that Superman develops in an oneric climate were the reader does not know what has happened before. Superman does not consume himself. This cryptic phrase means that Superman unlike a character in a novel does not change from story to story and does not develop as a character. Superman shares a timelessness with other mythic characters such as Hercules. There is an illusion of “continuous present”.
This was true of comic books from their inception in the 1940’s through the 1970’s but market forces forced a change in this plot system. The price of paper went up dramatically and so did the price of comic books. Comic books became too expensive for young readers that outgrew the product. According to a survey by DC Comics in 1995, the average age of comic book readers was 25 years of age. Older readers do not like stories set in an oneiric setting but instead obsess over what is referred to in the comic book industry as continuity. Superman is also a product of a particular comic book company, namely the afore mentioned DC Comics.
In the sixties Stan Lee revamped a comic book company called Marvel Comics that produced such titles as the Amazing Spiderman and the Fantastic Four. One of his practices was to insert the comic book equivalent of footnotes! The reader was given information in the form of a small box about prior comic books. For example if Thor and the Hulk fought again. Thor might mention their last battle and the box would have comic book issue information in a small box. This practice soon became cumbersome and is rarely used today but the readers came to expect continuity in their comic books. DC did ignore the Marvel continuity system for many years but eventually tried to deal with continuity issues in its own way.
One DC plot device was the creation of parallel Earths. The Superman of the 1940’s had a very different history than the Superman of the sixties. DC explained these differences in continuity by telling readers that the Superman of the 1940’s came from Earth 2. The Superman of the sixties was from Earth 1. The two Superman’s could and did meet on occasion. Readers and writers alike became more and more self-conscious of the issue of continuity and this has been a widely discussed topic in the letter’s column of comic book issues and comic book conventions. There are whole websites that feature elaborate explanations of how this issue or that issue might have occurred in Earth1 or 2 or some other Earth. The number of Earths became cumbersome for DC and there was an attempt to meld all the Earth’s in the Crisis of the Infinite Earths (1985) story arc that involved all of the DC titles. An explanation of this story arc is beyond the purview of this paper but the point is that comic books are anything but oneiric since the time Eco wrote his critique.
Eco makes several claims about the civic consciousness and political consciousness of Superman. Superman could take over the government rather than using his cosmic level powers to combat petty street crime. Superman could effect the causes of crime i.e. social causes but chooses not to. This is a fair characterization of Superman from his inception all the way through the 1970’s. The actions of Superman are absurd. Superman literally saves cats while watching the world burn. The shift in the average age of comic book readers led to readers that recognized this absurdity and Superman had to be changed to fit the needs of these readers. Superman was depowered.
John Byrne was given the task in 1986 to write a miniseries, The Man of Steel, that would reboot the Superman mythos. Can a rebooted mythos be a mythos? The new Superman that was much less powerful than the Superman of the sixties which in comic book jargon is referred to as the Silver Age Superman. John Byrne destroyed one of the essential features of the Superman mythos. Superman does not kill! Superman will go to absurd lengths to even avoid killing animals! Byrne had Superman kill (Superman, vol. 2, #22, 1988)!
Superman #22
Superman is on an alternate Earth that is the home of the Silver Age Superboy. The Byrne version of Superman did not develop powers until much later and did not go through a Superboy stage. The modern Superman faces Silver Age Kryptonians super villains from the Phantom Zone. The Kryptonians are far, far more powerful than him and have already destroyed the Earth of the Silver Age Superboy. The modern Superman does not have the power to contain the Silver Age Kryptonians and must take radical action to prevent his own Earth from ever being destroyed. Superman accepts the utililatarian logic of war that the lives of billions outweigh the lives of three villains. Furthermore, the villains have killed billions already and deserve the death penalty.
The modern Superman is immune to the Kryptonite of this Earth and uses the Kryptonite of this Earth to kill the three evil Kryptonians. One of the Kryptonians is a woman! Superman kills a woman! Does this mean Superman is not myth? I would argue that the Superman mythos is so powerful that if you asked a dozen people if Superman kills that most of them would say “no” and that the mythos is more powerful than the comic book. While this reboot was dramatic, Superman had undergone changes in the past and Eco was probably unaware he was largely dealing with the Silver Age Superman rather than the Golden Age Superman.
The Superman of the 1940s and part of the 1950s was referred to as the Superman of the Golden Age. The Golden Age superman could leap over a building. The Silver Age Superman could leap into a space. The Golden Age superman could lift a battle ship. The Silver Age Superman could move planets. The Golden Age Superman was less powerful and also much more likely to take the law into his own hands. The Golden Age Superman was not a boy scout and even killed. In Action #2, 1938, Superman does kill a villain. Eco is obviously unaware of this part of the Superman story. The Golden Age Superman was actually a fugitive because of his vigilante activities until 1942. Eco is therefore not discussing Superman but the Silver Age Superman. The Golden Age Superman slowly became the almost all powerful boy scout of the Silver Age. The Silver Age Superman was too powerful and too much of a boy scout for the eighties. The Modern Age Superman is much less powerful than the Silver Age Superman and much more critical of his heroics.
The absurdity of the still very powerful Modern Age Superman following the orders of a US President almost to the letter rather than taking a more critical political role was explored in the Dark Knight Returns (1986). The Dark Knight Returns is a seminal miniseries about Batman. In this series Batman starts to question whether or not super heroes should use their powers more directly to shape the social and political landscape. The arguments between Superman and Batman become the argument between the absurdist Superhero Eco describes and a post-modern self-conscious hero in the form of Batman. The Dark Knight Returns was a huge hit and led to a whole series of comic books that explored the theme of a modern versus post-modern hero. Batman argues that in some cases super heroes have a duty to disobey governmental authority but what are the limits of such disobedience? In the same year another title at Marvel explored this issue more directly.
In 1986 the 12 issue miniseries called the Squadron Supreme was published by Marvel and featured a thinly disguised Justice League of America. Hyperion is the Superman of this group and he decides the Squadron Supreme needs to take over the world! The Batman doppelganger is Nighthawk and he opposes this move by his former teammates. Nighthawk is the President of the US who was under the mind control of an alien and created the horrible conditions of that Earth due to that mind control. This is reversal of the roles of Batman and Superman in the Dark Knight Returns. Still the Squadron Supreme will not kill. When Nighthawk dies in a battle with the Squadron Supreme, Hyperion decides the Squadron Supreme has gone too far and Nighthawk wins a pyrrhic battle.
By the year 1999 the world is ready for a super hero team that goes further than the Squadron Supreme. The Authority has a team of super heroes flat out taking over the US government. Again, if super heroes stage a coup are they still heroes? The Authority is not presented as a rogue super hero team but rather as a super hero team that has decided to rebel against its absurdist role and are sane in an insane world. The Authority does kick the Chinese out of Tibet. The Authority does overthrow dictators violently. Most of all, the Authority does terminate super villains, often brutally, rather than put them in jails that can’t possibly hold them. The Authority occupies the Wildstorm universe that is part of the DC imprint but not part of the DC universe and is very much a “mature” title.
The absurdity of Superman’s boy scout persona was dealt with directly in DC universe in the Kingdom Come (1996) story line. Magog kills the Joker after the Joker poisons all the workers in the Daily Planet including Lois Lane the great love of Superman. Superman arrests Magog. Magog is later acquitted of the death of the Joker by a court of law. Presumably, the jury realizes the absurdity of trying to imprison someone like the Joker who will not stay imprisoned. The legal system commits a blatantly illegal act. In this story line, Superman then retires when faced with this fact. This is assumed to happen in a parallel Earth rather than “real” Earth that the “real” Superman occupies
Overall, the extent to which a super hero crosses or does not cross two lines that define a super hero becomes a major theme of comic books in the new millennium. One line is obedience to authority. Super heroes obey the law. Super villains do not obey the law. This consensus was made official policy with the introduction of the comic code authority (CCA) that was adopted in 1954. The CCA prohibited the presentation of “policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions … in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.” This code was adopted due to the fact that the readership largely consisted of youngsters. The first defining characteristic of super heroes has been explored in the new millennium on a large scale.
The one enemy Superman cannot defeat!
Marvel had a multi series story line called the Civil War (2006-2007) that looks at how super heroes and communities of super heroes react to a superhuman registration act. I found the story line a bit silly since the government does not attempt to ban super humans and super heroics but instead register super humans and have them work for the government the same way a policeman or soldier would. Iron Man is the main proponent of this act and proposes this legislation to stop the banning of super heroes altogether. The compromise strikes me as very reasonable and very American and I absolutely did not buy into the plot line extension that has Captain America leading the rebel super heroes who fight the act. Worse, you have Nick Fury the ex-director of SHIELD, the Marvel equivalent of the CIA and the FBI put together, aiding the rebels instead of the government. What hero was on what side of the Civil War plot line seemed fairly arbitrary. The fact that the numbers were almost equal was also ridiculous. More people will follow a law than not follow a law all other things being equal.
Plus, wouldn’t most super heroes prefer to get paid for their work rather than risking their lives for free? The financial woes of Marvel super heroes is one of the themes that Marvel pursued early on rather than DC. When the King Pin discovers Daredevil’s real identity in the Born Again plot line, he destroys his civilian identity professionally and therefore economically! In the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man attempts to join the Fantastic Four for a pay check since he is teenager making minimum wage when he can even get a job and promptly leaves the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four, when he finds out there really isn’t a salary. One of the heroes that joins the government initiative does mention looking forward to getting health insurance for a change! Under the super human registration act, the super heroes even get to keep their secret identities, they just have to reveal them to the government. We are supposed to believe about fifty percent of all super heroes will rebel against the government and turn down a paycheck.
The second line a super hero cannot cross is not killing. Super heroes do not kill! This is what makes them heroes and not soldiers. The fact that super heroes do not kill has a history. The Golden Age Superman and Batman did kill! As mentioned, Superman beat a robber to death in one of the earliest issues. Batman killed a villain in his very first appearance. However, a consensus was reached at DC that super heroes did not kill and more especially Superman did not kill. A similar consensus was reached at Marvel Comics. One and only one major super hero in the Marvel Universe, the Punisher, will cross the second line and kill super villains.
Captain America beats the crap out of the Punisher when he joins the Civil War rebellion because the Punisher kills some super villains that want to also join the rebellion and arrive with a white flag. Turns out the government is employing pardoned super villains to bring down the rebel super heroes so it is a fight fire with fire situation. For Captain America you can cross the first line and disobey the government but cannot cross the second line and still be a hero. Cap is a rebel but only to a point. So lets get this straight Cap, violate Federal law ok, turn down pay check ok but kill scum not ok? I think it would have been more interesting to see a third rebel group led by the Punisher. Hey we are outlaws anyway, why not go all the way and do it right and kill the scum who the jails can’t hold anyway.
A really radical rebel hard core minority of super heroes armed to the teeth and trained by the Punisher versus a superhero establishment majority would have been an interesting story line. Maybe it can be a What If graphic novel in the future. What if the Punisher had led the rebels during the Civil War instead of Captain America? A much more interesting exploration of crossing the second line, killing super villains, happened a year earlier in the Batman #635 and #636 over at DC.
In the Under the Hood (2005) story line, Batman faces an ex-Robin, Jason Todd returned from the dead in the form of the Red Hood who argues that Batman is a paper tiger since his rule about not killing is literally a fatal error. The rogues gallery of Batman is one of the scariest around and I do have a hard time believing that his opponents care about a busted nose or going to jail at all. If Batman is not a deterrent then how effective is Batman? Any one over the age of ten realizes that ninety percent of law enforcement is about deterrence, via the threat of punishment, before the crime rather than punishment after the crime. This is precisely the argument that the Red Hood makes. Psychopath maniacs like Two-Face and the Joker think Batman’s code of honor is a joke pun intended.
When the Red Hood was Robin, the Joker killed him and the Red Mask was resurrected via cosmic means. The Red Hood has “really” died in the Death in the Family (1988) story line. Readers voted to have him killed! The Red Hood hates the Joker and the demise of the Joker is one of the big goals of the Red Hood. The Joker was the original Red Hood in the Killing Joke, often considered the best Joker story ever, by Alan Moore. The Killing Joke may or may not be part of the current continuity, so there is a bit of inside Joke with Jason adopting this persona. Incredibly, Batman tries to stop the Red Hood from killing the Joker. The Joker is a mass murderer with hundreds of deaths under his belt largely due to mass poisoning who escapes from Arkham Asylum with ease. He has shot the original Bat Girl for a lark and made her a permanent cripple. The Joker has not just killed innocents but permanently injured one member of the Batman super hero family and killed another. Sorry I am with the Red Hood on this one. Kill the Joker!
The Red Hood is basically DC’s version of the Punisher. DC tried a character rip-off of the Punisher called the Vigilante but he was pathetic. I do think the Red Hood is a much more interesting character than the Punisher. The Red Hood uses ironic dialogue while attacking Batman and blowing up bad guys that is much more interesting than the Punisher’s pseudo noire cinema dialogue. The Red Hood, like the Punisher uses firearms but also uses exotic melee weapons that are not the Punisher’s style. I find the armory of the Red Hood more interesting than the armory of the Punisher. Go Red Hood! I do a DC versus Marvel series on this blog and sooner or later will have to pit the number one vigilante of the DC Universe, Red Hood, against the number one vigilante of the Marvel universe, the Punisher. Comments ahead of time are welcome but back to the main topic.
Eco makes two errors of fact in his paper. Eco asserts that comic books are published weekly. American comic books are published monthly and bimonthly. Certainly this is the case with Superman and all the other comic book titles he mentions in his paper. Generally, US comic books are reprinted weekly in Europe and this leads to problems since the entire series is quickly reprinted. Eco mentions a comic book named Devil. There is no such American comic book and the author suspects that perhaps Eco is referring to Daredevil. Daredevil in Italian is titled Diablo or Devil but this is not the name of the title in English. These are minor factual errors and do not detract from the general validity of his thesis.
Finally, is the story of Superman actually a myth? A myth is timeless and the fact that the Superman story has been changed to make the story more current and marketable suggests the Superman story is an intellectual property driven by market forces and is not timeless unlike a myth. On the other hand, many persons familiar with the Superman story may only be aware of an archetype, Silver Age, version of the Superman story that may be timeless because it affects some core element, Jungian(?), of the reader’s psyche unlike revisions of Superman. The Superman Eco describes may be in fact the Superman most of the world still knows and identifies with. I would assert that not all comic book heroes are mythic especially in the present but if there is one comic book hero that is mythic then that hero is Superman.
References
Eco, Umberto. “The Myth of Superman.” Diacritics. Vol. 2, No. 1. (Spring, 1972), 14-22
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.
Kyle XY and Clark Kent of Smallville have a lot in common. They are both teenagers. They both have superpowers. They are both on prime time television. Clark fights Luthor Corp. Kyle fights Madacorp. Both have fatherhood issues. Kyle is a clone of a super scientist Adam Baylin and Kyle has to hunt his father down. Clark’s dad is Jor El and is dead due to the destruction of Krypton and Clark deals with a holograph of his dad rather than a living dad. Both have “normal” human parents that teach them lessons in humanity. Both have female versions with their powers that are slightly more powerful. Kyle’s clone companion, Jessi XX, was created later and is a more advanced clone model and has super strength unlike Kyle. Supergirl, Clark’s cousin, can fly while Clark cannot.
I would say there is a strong chance that the creators of Kyle XY saw the success of Smallville and decided to make their own teenage superhero. Clark of Smallville is very different from Superman of the comic books and movies. Clark is young and much less experienced than Superman. An episode of Smallville starring the Legion of Superheroes, from the 31st century, lets us know that Clark will become Superman but the Legion in general finds Clark less than impressive compared to the legend of Superman. Clark is still discovering new superpowers during the first three or four episodes. Heat vision turns out to be especially problematic in one episode. As of episode eight Clark cannot fly with any regularity. Clark isn’t even really Superboy. The silver age comic book Superboy would demolish the Smallville Clark. Clark will probably skip the Superboy phase in this version of the Superman story. Clark hasn’t even put on a costume but this may happen in the upcoming ninth season.
I think one of the keys to the success of Smallville is that the creators have taken a lot of the plot line from the Marvel superhero Spiderman and interjected that plot line into the Superman mythos with great success. The early Spiderman could be summarized as “insecure teenager becomes superhero” and this is what Clark is doing. Superman is a DC character and Marvel is their competition. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
One of the recurring plot line weaknesses of Superman is that Superman has been too powerful for interesting battles and/or adventures. Kryptonite was created by the Superman radio show in the thirties precisely to address this problem. In recent years Superman has been depowered and the current Superman is far less powerful than the silver age Superman.
The fans of comic books are largely male teenagers. Stan Lee, of Marvel comic books, figured out in the sixties that male teenagers might relate more to a hero that shared their insecurities like Spiderman. Marvel then really exploited the teenage superhero idea with the X-Men who are mostly teenagers and reside at the Xavier School for the Talented and Gifted rather than something like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude which is more a married with children man’s fantasy than a teenage guy fantasy.
Kyle XY premiered in 2006 and has a super brain. Kyle can detect mathematical patterns intuitively. In superpower speak this is some type of algorithmic pattern awareness. Kyle has photographic memory. Kyle excels at analyzing mathematical data but has high analytical skills in general and can excel in any scientific area. Overall, Kyle has super intelligence but due to not being raised by a family, but grown in a pod, lacked basic knowledge of human society and how people interact. The discrepancy between his analytical/mathematical intelligence and social knowledge was and is a major theme of the show.
Kyle can control his body and senses at superhuman levels. Kyle is like a super yogi. Kyle does not have a super body like Clark but due to his superior control of his nervous system can push his existing normal body to supernormal limits. This allows Kyle exceptional pain management. In particular, Kyle can increase his hearing but at a cost. Kyle becomes dizzy after pushing his body to superhuman levels and can even injure himself through over use of his super hearing.
Clark’s super hearing, on the other hand, does not involve any such price. Kyle also has photographic memory. Kyle’s photographic memory can tie directly into muscle memory and he can learn any kinesic skill upon watching someone perform this skill. If he watches a Bruce Lee movie then he will be able to perform any of the moves Bruce Lee demonstrated in that movie. In comic book circles this power is also referred to as photographic reflexes.
The Taskmaster is a major Marvel comic books super villain and only has this superpower and takes on the likes of Captain America. Kyle’s photographic reflexes are downplayed in his TV series and he has not gone the next logical step and mastered every martial art around to become some sort of super fighter. Instead Kyle tends to try to reason his way out of tough situations.
Kyle has something beyond photographic memory and this is called holographic memory. Kyle can search through his memories as though he was having the experience again. Kyle has super learning. Kyle learned how to talk in one day. Kyle has the mental equivalent of a firewall and can resist mind control. Kyle has limited telepathy. Kyle has limited telekinetic abilities that have two origins. The basis of his telekinetic abilities lie in his ability to change the polarity of his cells and attract or repel water. Kyle can also change the gravitational field around an object.
Kyle has an interesting way of drawing and basically draws like a dot matrix printer and makes a series of points, usually with crayons, that allow him to make pictures that resemble photographs in their clarity. This photographic drawing ability and photographic memory ability means he can make pictures of events and things he does not fully understand at the time and then figure out what is going on by looking at the picture and/or sharing the picture with others, generally his family, who can help him figure out the picture. Kyle is kind of the ultimate eye witness!
Kyle’s major weakness is his aforementioned lack of social experience and he can be easily manipulated by con artist types although his instincts about people are pretty good despite his lack of social experience and over time he is learning more and more about social interaction and norms. Kyle has all the physical weakness of any human. His super brain can overtax his all too human body. Kyle does not have a belly button due to being raised in a pod rather than a womb and his CAT scans show way too much activity but all in all Kyle is human and can pass for human more easily than Clark. Kyle can hide his superhuman nature via restraint. Clark is an alien and must avoid a physical examination at all costs to keep his powers secret.
Clark’s superpowers are much more well known than those of Kyle XY and are basically Superman’s but on a lower power scale and minus flight. Clark’s superpowers include invulnerability, super strength, super speed, heat ray vision, X-Ray vision, and super hearing, far beyond Kyle’s level and without the fatigue weakness. Clark is bright but does not appear to have super intelligence unlike many versions of Superman. Clark also cannot fly at this time.
Clark also has a strong sense of ethics that comes from being raised on a Kansas farm and generally knows what the right thing to do is and acts as a natural born leader to those around him including other superheroes, the Justice League, Green Arrow, the Legion of Superheroes, due to this strong sense of right and wrong. This is in contrast to Kyle who is still trying to figure out the subtleties of human morality and in particular the discrepancy between what humans say is moral and what they do.
Clark’s number one weakness is kryptonite. Green kryptonite can kill him. Red kryptonite turns him into a hedonistic psycho not necessarily a bad guy but more of a rebel without a cause on steroids. Green kryptonite is all over Smallville! The meteor showers that brought Clark to Smallville also apparently brought tons and tons of green kryptonite to Smallville. In just about all other versions of Superman, green kryptonite is super rare and bad guys go to the trouble of spending millions to synthesize the stuff because it is so rare. No need for a bad guy in the Smallville universe to spend a dime synthesizing kryptonite since the stuff apparently is just lying all over the place. This makes Clark relatively vulnerable compared to other versions of Superman. Still super speed and super senses mean that Clark can move faster than a speeding bullet including kryptonite bullets and hear the clicking of the chamber before the bullet is even fired.
Clark has fought Braniac, a super computer from his home planet Krypton. Braniac has super intelligence on a level that dwarfs Kyle. Clark’s number one enemy is Luthor, who in the Smallville version does not have super intelligence, unlike the Silver Age comic book version. The Smallville Luthor does have extreme cunning and access to the most advanced research labs in the world via Luthor Corp. Luthor does have access to the finest minds on Earth and knows how to manipulate people including scientists who may be smarter academically than Luthor but not as cunning as Luthor. A team of the finest minds with the best research capabilities on Earth might have a combined IQ that is greater and more dangerous than Kyle’s IQ. The contests between Luthor and Clark can be seen as contests between brain versus brawn to a great extent and Clark has always come out ahead.
Besides Luthor, Clark has gone up against a army of superpowered foes that are far more powerful than anything Kyle has gone up against so Clark has the experience edge. Green kryptonite can give humans superpowers and apparently every other teenager in Smallville has been exposed to green kryptonite and the green stuff also seems to make humans into psychos but this is debatable. So in a boring head on contest Clark would probably beat Kyle but the purpose of these posts is to entertain not bore!
The scenario, Luthor manipulates Kyle into thinking Clark is the vanguard of an alien invasion. This would be no problem for Luthor whatsoever since he has manipulated people far less naïve than Kyle. This event happens after season six when Luthor knows all of Clark’s secrets including his weakness to kryptonite and Kyle comes up with about a hundred fantastic weapon delivery systems to “stun” Clark with kryptonite despite Clark’s super speed and super senses. Luthor has lied to Kyle and told him that Kryptonite stuns rather than kills Kryptonians since Luthor realizes Kyle would never agree to kill anyone even an alien invader.
Kyle belatedly does an internet search about Luthor and realizes he has been had and that Luthor is a very, very bad person based on his business practices that are a matter of public record. Kyle then hacks into the files of Luthor Corp and realizes that Luthor is not just bad but evil! Kyle warns Clark of Luthor’s impending attack and together they attack Luthor Corp. Clark explains to Kyle that the best defense is a strong offense. Kyle attacks the computers of Luthor Corp. Clark attacks the muscle guarding the computers at Luthor Corp so Kyle can get to them. Clark is constantly breaking into Luthor Corp secret centers so this should be familiar territory for him. Even Madacorp has been firebombed by Kyle’s mentor. As stated, Clark has broken into Luthor Corp secret centers before even with Justice League members but never with someone like Kyle!
Kyle uses a terminal at the secret Luthor Corp lair to erase all data and I mean all data from all Luthor Corp’s computers including all financial data and Luthor is left with a company minus money and research data and Luthor Corp is all about data. Kyle doesn’t stop there and decides to leave Luthor Corp about a billion bucks in the red and exposes every crime, fraud and misplaced paper clip that Luthor corp was ever involved in to the Feds and the Daily Planet by emailing the pertinent records so Luthor ends up being chased by debt collectors and the law. Who knows which is worse?
Luthor Corp is destroyed but is Luthor? Luthor is cunning but not much without the resources of Luthor Corp or at least in the short range. Years later, Luthor is bankrupt and has served time in jail for fraud. Luthor even had to use all of his hidden cash in the Caymans, not on the Luthor Corp books, on lawyers and assasins to kill those who could have expose more serious crimes. His company, his money, his good name and his friends are all gone! Luthor is pan handling for booze on the streets of some third world hell hole where he is not recognized when he sees a picture of Kyle and Clark on the front page of the Daily Planet that some expat has thrown on the ground. It is of course raining! Rain drops and mud cover the newspaper but Luthor can still read the front page.
Apparently Clark and Kyle have started some sort of think tank charity to solve the problems of the world. Kyle comes up with the science while Clark does hero for hire jobs to pay for the research and implementation. Luthor raises his fists to the sky, throws the bottle of cheap local whisky he was drinking to the ground, breaking the bottle, and vows, “I will never be poor again”. “That which does not kill you only makes you stronger”, thinks Luthor. Of course the guy who originally wrote that died in an insane asylum. I like to say, “There are many things that will not kill you but can maim you for life in such a way that death would seem like a good thing”.
Luthor creates a new criminal organization that has a corporate structure but is more mafia than corporation and far deadlier and secretive than Luthor Corp ever was and the first thing on the agenda of this corporation is the destruction of Clark and Kyle. Luthor even manages to hire a lot of the more nefarious elements of Madacorp to work for his new organization. Thus a new series begins that combines the fan bases of both Kyle XY and Smallville and makes untold millions while I suffer the slings and arrows of middle class existence.
The genre of this post is teenage humor and the heroes are the teenagers of this non superhero genre. The ultimate comic book archetype of this genre would be Archie published by MLJ/Archie Comics. The enduring success of Archie has created many imitators over the years. Archie was so successful that characters in his universe became spin off titles. Some of the Archie characters that had their own titles include Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and even less well known characters such as Principal Weatherby, Dilton Doily, and Big Ethel. Interestingly, Archie went through a superhero phase. The Archie superhero stories were written as parodies of regular superheroes. Archie was Pureheart the Powerful. Jughead was Captain Hero.
The DC teenagers include Scribbly, Buzzy, Binky, Scooter and Debbie. Scribbly the boy cartoonist was invented by comic book giant Sheldon Mayer for Dell Comics in 1936. Scribbly moved to the back pages of DCs All American Comics in 1939. The last appearance of Scribbly in that title was in 1944. When Archie became popular, Scribbly returned in his own series for 15 issues between 1948 and 1952. Binky then appeared in the back pages of DC’s other two teen humor titles, Buzzy and Leave it to Binky.
Buzzy was a hipster, unlike Archie, and one of the few none Archie clones in this genre. Buzzy was part of a five-piece combo. Buzzy graduated from the All Funny Comics anthology to his own title that ran from 1944 to 1958. Buzzy became more and more an Archie clone during the run of the title.
Binky started in his own title, Leave it to Binky, immediately in 1948 in response to the success of Archie. Binky was a teenager in high school and his title lasted until 1958. Binky won the Shazam Award for best inker in 1970 and this is not a genre known for winning awards.
Scooter was the main character in the title Swing with Scooter that was launched in 1966 almost ten years after the demise of Buzzy and Binky. Scooter was named after his scooter that he used for transportation and was a British mod. A mod can be considered a type of sixties British hippie. Scooter was transplanted to Laurel City, USA. Scooter was lucky enough to be born in an era when crossovers became more common and he met the likes of Batman and Superman. There will be no such teen humor/superhero crossover until Archie meets the Punisher published in 1994.
Scooter is probably the only DC character of the teen humor genre that I remember. I was born in 1957 and missed all the other DC teens due to my age but vaguely remember running into Scooter in the newsstands. My own parents were into the whole hippie, mod, whatever thing in the sixties, and because of this, I found the character a little interesting but even as a youth was smart enough to realize this comic book was being written by people who had no idea what was going on in the sixties counter culture. The writers were middle aged, the slang was more lame than hip. When a 12 year old can figure this out about your dialogue then your title is in trouble. I had been an on and off, tepid fan, of Archie since I was eight years old until I was about 14, so the problem wasn’t that I didn’t like the genre. The problem wasn’t I didn’t like Scooter. Scooter lasted 36 issues and for a non superhero genre that is pretty good so maybe the slang worked on other less worldly teens.
Debbi starred in Date with Debbi that ran 18 issues from1969 to 1972. Debbi was a red head. Debbi looked like a female version of Archie, right down to the chubby cheeks and this is not a good thing! I am surprised the series lasted as long as it did.
I have mentioned in other posts, in this series, how the DC imprint Vertigo has consistently rebooted non superhero material from DC’s obscure comic book past. I challenge Vertigo to do a miniseries about DC’s long lost teens. How about a look at the teens twenty years later? The DC teens are all working as office workers at a paper company, no, the paper company has already been done, maybe a computer support company. They go to a bar and reminiscence about their lost youth and decide to do something crazy as a group. Look up their lost loves? This would give an excuse to see all their supporting casts. Go to Thailand? Maybe they do something even crazier. Maybe they take acid together in Amsterdam that was accidentally mixed with alien DNA and they merge into Super Hip. Maybe a road trip where they see their lost loves, go to Thailand and then go to Amsterdam.
Super Hip briefly appeared in the Adventures of Bob Hope DC comic book and basically could alter reality as this super power is referred to nowadays. Mostly Super Hip displayed Superman type powers. Super Hip’s alter ego, Tad, went to Benedict Arnold High School. Super Hip is one of those totally obscure DC characters that didn’t even rate a mention in Who’s Who in the DC Universe. Super Hip was drawn in a cartoony style that was reminiscent of teen humor characters. I think Super Hip was some sort of misguided attempt to combine a super hero with a teen humor character.
The Marvel teenagers include Millie the Model, Chili and Patsy Walker. Patsy Walker was popular from the 1940s until 1967 and even supported several spin off titles. Patsy Walker was a red head and her romantic rival was black haired Hedy Wolfe. Betty and Veronica, of Archie Comics, of course are blonde and black haired respectively and minus super hero costumes perhaps hair color is needed to differentiate comic book characters in situations where a lack of a consistent house style can confuse young readers. In 1973, Marvel brought back the name but totally rewrote the character, and made Patsy Walker the alter Ego of the super heroine known as Hellcat. This is similar to what Marvel did with Night Nurse, a romance genre heroine that was remade into the nurse of super heroes.
There is some overlap between romance comics and teenage humor comics. For example, Millie the Model went back and forth from being a romance comic to a teen humor comic. The art on the cover lets the reader know which version of Millie they are dealing with immediately. The romance comic version of Millie the Model issues were drawn in a more realistic fashion. The teen humor version is in a cartoony style that imitated the Archie Comics house style.
Chili was the red headed rival of Millie and in her own series was consistently a teen humor title. The clothes that Millie and Chili wore are a big part of both series. Both titles featured paper dolls and outfits in the comic book. Many of the Millie comics, the romance version, showed off very glamorous fifties type outfits. Many covers of Millie had her sporting evening gowns and furs. Not exactly something you would wear to the mall. I think Marilyn Monroe might have been the inspiration for these covers. Chili,in her own series, on the other hand, consistently wore very mod clothes with bright colors and even pant suits and wore stylish clothes you might actually see in the mall in the late sixties and seventies.
Despite the difference in art styles between the teen humor and romance genres, there are many similarities in plot lines. Both genres highlight male/female relationships in general and love triangles in particular, but the story line of a romance comic leads to love or a broken heart while the story line of a teenage humor comic leads to a punch line.
Another interesting difference between the plot lines is that teenage humor generally portrays a young man such as Archie being pursued by two gals such as Betty and Veronica. In romance comics, a woman is pursued by two men. One of the men would be the wild one and one the stable one. In teenage humor the main difference between the two gals would be the color of their hair. Although upon further examination Betty represents the nice girl next door while Veronica is more of a vamp but the main difference between them is definitely their hair color. A Mad Magazine parody of Archie named Starchie highlights this lack of difference between Betty and Veronica. Starchie tells that parody version of Jughead that Betty and Veronica are drawn totally differently despite the fact they have had identical poses and are drawn exactly alike, except for their hair, throughout the parody.
Teens in this genre do not fight but instead compete romantically and generally win or lose via practical jokes. The three Marvel female teens, Millie the Model, Patsy Walker and Chili go out on a group date with the DC teens, Scribbly, Buzzy, Binky, Scooter and Debbi. There are four women and four men so someone is going to go home alone. Millie the Model is a model! In teen humor comics looks are everything so all the guys go after Millie, leaving Patsy and Debbie to sulk in the soda shop and reflect how unfair life is.
Patsy, Debbi and Chili decide to play a trick on the guys. After all fellow red heads have to stick together when dealing with gorgeous blondes! Patsy and Debbie slip some pepper and salt into the sodas of the guys while the boys all stare at Chili and Millie walking to the restroom together. Chili is deliberately doing her sexiest walk, in her tight, oh so sixties, short, short little dress. Did I mention that I have very fond memories of sixties styles? The boys all choke on their foul tasting sodas and Patsy, Debbie and Chili laugh their heads off. The boys agree this is a very funny joke and that they deserved their treatment because of how they ignored the red heads. Scooter is a mod, with a sixties, as opposed to fifties view of sexuality and has actually been with a woman. Scooter starts to reflect that Chili is pretty mod and that the competition for Millie is just too intense. Later Scooter and Chili will marry and then divorce. The Marvel red heads hurt the DC men, even if they had help from a DC gal, so Marvel wins!
The main superheroes of the Miracleman universe include Kid Marvelman, Miracleman, Miraclewoman and Young Miracleman. The Miracleman universe is the third reboot alphabetically but Moore’s first reboot chronologically. Moore did this reboot before the Watchmen that led to his ascendance as the premiere comic book writer of all time. In the sixties in Great Britain there was a superhero called Marvelman. Marvel comics book sued the English publishers and this lead to the demise of Marvelman. Marvelman never made it to the US. Years later, Moore decided to reboot Marvelman but due to the same copyright issues could not use the name Marvelman and changed the name to Miracleman.
A mad scientist working for the British government has figured out alien technology thousands of years ahead of ours and has created Miracleman, Miraclewoman and Young Miracleman. Their powers are more or less than same as Superman’s but they are in world much more like ours than Superman’s so their relative power is much higher. The beings are kept in a state of stasis and they are programmed with adventures which are the same as the adventures of the original Marvelman series. This is the first use of the comic book within a comic book that will become Moore’s trademark signature in all other reboots except in the case of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Miracleman ultimately does all the things that Superman will not even though he could. Miracleman creates paradise on Earth and guides humanity towards the next level of evolution as part of an interstellar community. The Miracleman family takes over the Earth in order to bring order at the “molecular” level and the does just that. The Miracleman family exists as a pantheon of gods sitting above humanity. This theme of super beings dealing with the fundamental issues of human existence such as worldwide pollution, bad governance and unequal distribution of resources and opportunity will later be explored in two other comic book series including DC’s Squadron Supreme and the Authority. The absurdity of Superman using his vast powers to stop bank robbers and dealing with the symptoms of human suffering rather than the causes of human material suffering if not existential suffering was identified by no less an literary giant than Umberto Ecco in his essay about Superman.
Miracleman is not only a more “realistic” version of Superman but a much darker version. If a mere mortal messes with Miracleman then this mortal can expect instant death. Gods do not suffer disrespectful mortals. Superior characterization is shown throughout the series but certain characters stand out. Miraclewoman is very different than Miracleman in attitude. She is much more positive about her condition and revels in her super powers. This is in contrast to Super Girl who is a clone of Superman who happens to have breasts in most treatments of her. Miraclewoman is smarter than Miracleman. When faced with the leader of the aliens from which their powers are derived she suggests a radical diplomatic solution. Earth will be a neutral ground where the two great powers that govern the galaxy can meet. When Miracleman is rude to Margaret Thatcher, Miraclewoman intervenes and takes some of the sting out of their coup de tat. Miracleman is a brooding character that has transcended material suffering but not existential suffering. Miraclewoman is a cheerful happy person as well as she should be given her position as the queen of the gods.
Dr. Gargunza is probably the most fleshed out mad scientist in the history of comics. Dr. Gargunza is given credit for being a genius who as one of the aliens points out was like a gorilla that got a hold of a camera and made technological discoveries using that camera. Miracleman has to admit that Dr. Gargunza is his father and chooses to kill him with a kiss. The kiss is given while in orbit around the Earth where there is no air so the kiss is fatal and the subsequent meteor like fall is most certainly fatal. Miracleman must kill Dr. Gargunza because his intelligence and mastery of the alien technology makes him too dangerous but Miracleman does so with regret. And don’t gods always have to kill their fathers to ascend to the top of the pantheon? Zeus must kill Chronus to fulfill his potential as a god.
Dr. Gargunza comes from the most humble beginnings in Mexico and after making a sufficient amount of pocket money, from gang activities, moves to Europe and starts a new and seeks out the likes of Heidegger and leaves the red dust of Mexico behind him forever. Dr. Gargunza realizes from his conversation with Heidegger that the ultimate problem of human existence is death and the solution is for him to create a baby with the alien technology that is super powered and immortal. Dr. Gargunza is not driven by some desire to take over the world but a desire to survive. Dr. Gargunza is a student of animals and hunts cheetahs for fun and would argue the will to survive transcends all other morality and the ends do justify the means. Issue 15 of the series shows a Kid Miracleman rampaging through London and is generally considered some of the darkest work in comic books period. I own every issue of the Moore version of Miracleman except this one and have heard the issue is extremely gory.
I give this reboot a rank of three out of the five reboots.
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!
Dr. Hugh Fox III 