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?