Comic From the 60s Explains Why Invasions Are a Bad Idea

Well, invasions to enhance your prestige. This 5 page comic (I left out the first page since it was just the narrator, the Wasp, talking about herself) tells the story of  the ruler of another planet who wanted to make himself great in history by conquering another planet. Unfortunately, he didn't have much of endgame planned. Instead of being revered, he ends being widely despised by his people for plunging them in an expensive war with no apparent benefits. Seems way too familiar today....

The Strength of a Dozen Men---Mr.Hyde

Well, this is one of my favorite Marvel Comics villains, Mr. Hyde.Guess how strong he is?




Hyde--stronger than a dozen men



I'd tell you his origin too, but I think I'll just let him tell you it, along with how strong he is......



And he tells you again, in fact he says it twice, by using the words "dozen" and "twelve" in the same sentence.



Again, he states that he's as strong as a dozen men.

Now, I have to give Hyde credit for low balling his strength. He's bragging, but he's giving an extremely conservative estimate. I mean, could twelve men lift a bus together?  I also like how as Calvin Zabo he was angry at being rejected for a job by the guy he was planning to rob anyway. And he calls Dr. Blake sucessful and wealthy. Marvel played fast and loose in the 60s about what kind of doctor  Blake was exactly. Sometimes, he was portrayed as a general practictioner and at other times he was shown to be a world class surgeon. But, let's move on....

I also want to mention how Hyde says that his transformation was just like how Stevenson described it in his book. Well, the Edward Hyde in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde did not have superhuman strength and was in fact even smaller than Dr. Jekyll. Also, Jekyll was a good man, whereas Calvin Zabo was already corrupt and all the serum did was change his appearance, give him superhuman strenght and a more beastly nature.

So, Hyde impersonates Thor in an attempt to discredit him. However, Thor is on to him by recalling.....



Again, the strength of a dozen men....

Hyde, however, kidnaps Thor in his civilian identity of Don Blake and Blake's nurse, Jane Foster,  and shows a surprising amount of introspection...

A few years later, he was even more open with his feelings

Yeah, he was even mad at Daredevil once for making fun of his name...

Hyde, Hyde, Hyde of the Jungle! Watch out for that tree!

Hyde takes Blake and Jane to his deserted castle in New York. How did he get a deserted castle? Must have been through adverse possession.

Perhaps, Nicolas Cage is renting out his castle to Hyde to help pay the bills.

Leaving Blake tied up there, Hyde takes Jane and reveals his plans and, in my opinion, that he never got laid when he was Calvin Zabo.

Really, he's going to steal a submarine and keep Jane as his queen? What is he...the Sub-Mariner?




Great minds think alike....

Eventually, Blake freed himself, transformed into Thor and saved Jane. However Hyde escaped. This led to his next appearance where he met and partered up with the Cobra.

 



Look, he's telling us again that he has the strength of a dozen men....



And again, sigh, he mentions he has the strength of a dozen men. We need to start a drinking game.

And so, an evil partnership was born that has had its ups and downs. I suppose at this point, I should put the Cobra's origin in here too.

Yes, he was bitten by a radioactive animal and gained the powers of that animal as a result. Can't think where that's ever happened before...
 Cobra and Hyde have always been ready to hold each other's feet to the fire.

Yes, even though Cobra has just started working with Hyde, he should have known that Hyde hates failure. If Cobra had read more John Gray, he would have picked up on this sooner.

But Cobra shows he's more than willing to dish it out too.

But at least Cobra has always shown a faith in his partner, despite how Hyde has always run and let Cobra be captured and  has openly voicied his fear of Cobra while they're together.

Cobra voices his faith in Hyde

And again...Calvin Zabo (Hyde) however feels....



Clearly, a dysfunctional and co-dependent relationship.

And that's my introduction of Mr. Hyde. I now leave you with one more scene where he brags about having the strength of a dozen men. And he even explains that his disguise is complete when he turns his jacket inside out. Yeah, gaining about 300 pounds in muscle and going back on the evolutionary ladder doesn't make the disguise complete. He has to turn his jacket inside out.

Hello, lamppost, what cha knowin?

Cartoon Shows and Their Comic Book Adapations

The new Young Justice comic based on the Young Justice TV show on Cartoon Network is different from all the other comic book tie ins to TV shows. This comic is actually in continuity with the TV show. The creators Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti supervised the writing of the first six issues and Weisman, along with another show writer, Kevin Hoops, will take over writing the series from issue 7. Young Justice adheres to a strict timeline with timestamps appearing in the show and the comic. A timeline created by the fans based on what we know so far can be read here.

Gargoyles, created by Greg Weisman, had a tie in with Marvel Comics. The comic's characterizations were way off, it had a mean spirited dreary feel about it, and few things made sense in any meaningful way. Weisman even called some plot points "creepy". 

Watching Justice League and reading the comic book tie, Justice League Adventures, was frustrating for me. Many elements contradicted what was on the show. I know that "Based on the hit TV show" is always emblazoned on the covers as a warning that it's not necessarily in continuity. However, that  caveat emptor  was not enough for me.  Since the comic had a monthly schedule and the TV airings were less rigorous, many characters were introduced in the adaptation comic first. 

Take Chronos, introuduced in the comic in 2002 and on the TV show in 2005.  

In the comic adaptation of the show



On the show





Another example is Killer Frost:





In the comic adaptation. A pity the barcode obscures her lovely body.



In the show

Another lack of communication or rather no communication between show and comic is the long forgetten show Spider-Man Unlimited.  The series was canceled after 4 episodes aired. The remaining 7 of that season were later aired sporadically over the next two years. The comic tie in was canceled after 5 issues.  The plot of the show was that Spider-Man was stranded on Counter-Earth, a world a lot like ours. He stays with a doctor, whose husband is missing, after he saves her child's life. The show implied and later came right and stated that the Green Goblin, a good guy on Counter-Earth, was the woman's missing husband. The final issue of the show's tie in comic implied strongly that the Wolverine of Counter-Earth was her missing husband. The show was stupid beyond belief and the writers of both properties must have known they were on a doomed enterprise and just did whatever.

The doomed enterprise

Is he the husband?

Or is he the husband? The world may never know or care.

So, finally here are the covers for the new Young Justice comics as published so far.



Superheroes On The Cross

Probably because of their noble and sacrificing nature, comic book creators are always tempted to link superheroes to the greatest Hero of all. Hence, the superheroes have been seen in many crucifix positions. Crucifixion, of course, existed before Jesus, but because of His famous execution, it can't be helped but to associate it with him. After all, Lenny Bruce said that if Jesus had been executed in modern times, kids would be wearing little electric chairs around their neck. And transformative figures tend to change our perceptions of things. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that John Brown would make the gallows as glorious as the cross. Not the best prediction.

One writer who really has a fixation on the cross is Grant Morrison. This blog demonstrates how he's used the motif over and over.

So, on with crux of my argument.....

Starting with the Angel. In a crossover called "Mutant Massacre", the Angel and his teammates X-Factors were trying to prevent the mass slaughter of a mutant community called the Morlocks.  During battle, the Angel's wings were pinned to the wall.

Well, next up: Captain America. Well, not really. It was another man named Roscoe who assumed the role of Cap when the real Cap lost his faith in America briefly and became the superhero known as Nomad. Long story. Anyway, Roscoe was murdered by the Red Skull.  On the cover, he was hung right side up, but in the comic itself he's upside down. I wonder if Nomad and the Falcon hung him right side up later to make it look more noble. I know, I'm sick....

Next up is Green Lantern. I think this only happened on the cover and not within the comic itself. Fortunately they only tied his arms and didn't pierce his flesh.  I suppose it should also be include that Green Lantern and Green Arrow also encountered an activist who was tied, crucifixion style, to the wing of an airplane. The activist had long hair and a beard, was "crucified" with two others and died at dawn. Yeah, very subtle.

Now, Quasar, a cosmic superhero with powerful wristbands. A supervillain called the Maelstrom wanted them, so he cut Quasar's hands (don't worry, they grew back!) off to get them and then crucified Quasar through his stumps. Maelstrom then  had one of his servants whip Quasar 39 times. Fortunately, Quasar showed off how tough he was by only saying "one" over and over when he was asked to count.

In an alternate reality, Spider-Man was captured by Kulan Gath, an evil wizard from Conan the Barbarian's era and crucified in revenge for a previous defeat. Spider-Man broke the cross and freed himself but died shortly thereafter. Since this is an alternate reality, this didn't result in any long reprecussions.



Not a scene from a comic book, but from Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League. Twice, the supervillain Darkseid captured Superman and immobolized him in a crucifix position. The first time, it played very heavy in the episode with Darkseid tempting Superman on a mountain. He later refers to him as the people of Earth's savior. The second time, no allegory was played up. It was just for Darkseid to immobilize Superman.

On an X-shaped cross (of course), Wolverine was crucified by a group of cyborgs called the Reavers. Thanks to his superhuman healing factor, Wolverine was able to survive the experience.


Finally, the cover of Fantastic Four #280. The cover purely symbolic. Nothing like the event on the cover occur within.