Thursday, January 31, 2008

DC's Dick Cheney and Marvel's Milosevic

Lex Luthor- Dr. Doom

This pairing breaks some of the rules stated below…but I think that it’s undeniable…

Victor Von Doom’s background has been consistent since the mid ‘60s: as it should be, since it’s perfect. But Luthor’s characterization has over almost 70 years pinballed from generic mad scientist, to a guy holding a major grudge against Superboy (holding the Boy of Steel responsible for his hair loss), to ruthless corporate baron, to POTUS, to renegade scientist again.

I think the prevailing history of Luthor works fine, with one caveat. He’s a self-made zillionaire who has conquered every scientific and economic discipline; cannot co-opt Superman and thus despises him with every fibre of his being; avoids the consequences of his perfidy for quite a while until he is disgraced; and finally becomes an outlaw (would that Richard Cheney meet a similar fate). Too bad that DC’s PTB have brought back the “Lex knew Clark as a teenager” bit, which I think is unnecessary.

Ultimately, these are two supremely intelligent and powerfully arrogant men who never, ever doubt their convictions that they alone know what’s best for humanity. Both also suffered mischaracterization in film adaptations: much respekk to Gene Hackman and Julian McMahon, tho’ (Clancy Brown, of course, got LL right).

Commonalities:
Both are the dominant ruthless super-geniuses of their respective diasporas, and both are obsessed with destroying their rivals. After years sporting prison greys, Luthor has been shown to wear combat gear —first the purple and green uniform in the 1970s, then the battle armor in the 1980s. And it wouldn’t strain credulity to posit that Luthor is of recent European descent.

Differences:
Doom is a central European despot, while the iteration that has endured for the last twenty years for Luthor has been that of a billionaire technocrat who becomes the President of the United States (I don’t think DC should have gone with this conceit). Doom is also more of a man or honor than Luthor.

Alternate histories:

LL: A child with incredible intellectual gifts from Central Europe sees his parents persecuted and killed. He comes to the United States to attend university, where he encounters fellow students Steve Dayton and Cliff Steele. An experiment on campus gone terribly awry results in his hair loss, and he returns to his country, which he eventually takes over and rules with an iron fist. In light of frequent attempts at global conquest, he is opposed by nearly every significant super hero on Earth—not least his former classmate and intellectual peer Steve Dayton, whom he despises with a white-hot intensity. As a head of state, he retains diplomatic immunity.

DD: An indomitably brilliant and incredibly wealthy aristocrat is outraged when the Mighty Thor appears in public— this “god” threatens his mostly unchallenged eminence. He resolves to marginalize and then to destroy his foe, marshaling his fortune and his vast command of dozens of scientific disciplines to this task. Although his machinations often involve attempted global domination and associating with various criminals, terrorists and despots, he retains a respectable facade and thus eludes arrest. He is finally disgraced and becomes an acknowledged and notorious leader of the outlaw fraternity.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Strongest Ones There Are (apologies to the Hulk)

Superman — Thor

Obvious, ain’t it?

DC evidently was dismissive of Marvel in the early 1960s:, in 1995, I interviewed then Marvel executive editor Mark Gruenwald (RIP) and DC executive editor Mike Carlin regarding the Marvel vs DC crossover. Gruenwald said then that DC editorial considered Marvel’s (i.e. Jack Kirby’s) art “crude and unsophisticated.”

As much as I love Kirby and Ditko, I don’t think the quality of the art was the point. DC’s rationalistic, plot-driven editorial style couldn’t help but seem bloodless and one-dimensional when Stan Lee introduced a truly human element to super hero comics. That was Marvel’s primary innovation—and in light of the often ponderous operatics of Fourth World series, which made a point of being enacted as 100% Kirby’s vision, no one can seriously dispute that Lee’s romance comic-honed talent for dialogue and pathos wasn’t key to early Marvel’s singularity.

Which is to say that I wonder what ‘60s Superman stories would have been like if they cribbed a little from Stan and Jack’s the Mighty Thor. Mort Weisinger had by that time been the caretaker of the Superman franchise since 1948. His books could contain raw emotion: the frequent “Imaginary Stories” and “time travel back to Krypton” often contained the kind of pathos that the intended readership— kids!—would understand. But in the '60s, Superman was still above it all, trudging through stories that were heedless of any developments past Weisinger's bailiwick.

But Stan and Jack changed the game. If DC (or perhaps Weisinger) wasn’t so defensive, maybe the Superman books could have really taken off into mind-bending, high stakes space opera. They wouldn’t have to neglect the human interest of Clark, Lois, Jimmy, etc etc, either. In any case, Julius Schwartz took over the Superman franchise in 1970, and since then Superman has been modernized a number of times. He’ll always be with us.

As for Thor—Lee wrote in his Origins of Marvel Comics that he felt he could only follow up the Fantastic Four, the Hulk and Spider-Man with a “god”; the norse variety, of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if he also thought that his emerging mythos needed a Superman-type.

Commonalities:
Both are the strongest, noblest dudes that be. Heat vision = thunderbolts, super-breath= wind. Both have “died” and been resurrected.

Differences:
Mainly, there’s the sense that “Clark” is his truest aspect and that he feels that, irrespective of his origins, Earth is his home and he’s a “man.” Whereas Thor is fond of humans, but he’s an Asgardian through and through, the bloodson of Odin: the “Don Blake” aspect hasn’t been emphasized much for a long time. Plus, Clark’s a reporter and Don’s a doctor. And Thor has no ultimate weakness a la kryptonite.

Alternate histories:

SM: Jor-El, the philosopher king from the planet Krypton, wishes to instill “human” qualities found in abundance on Earth in his son Kal-El. He creates an earthling identity, that of journalist Clark Kent, for Kal-El. After a few years, Kent discovers his true nature and quickly becomes the Earth’s preeminent champion. While he travels back to Krypton often, he also founds the Justice League of America and battles menaces from across the universe. In recent years, he abandons the Kent identity, adopts others, and then comes to reside on Krypton, succeeding his father as its leader. He’s presumed dead when Krypton is destroyed, although he has recently returned to Earth, where he resumes his identity as Kent and alongside other surviving Kryptonians attempts to revive their culture in the middle of the American West.

TH: Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, destroys the extradimensional realm Asgard. Odin, a preeminent “god,” sends his infant son to reside among mortals on Earth, where the nascent “god” is raised as Donald Blake by a childless couple. As a young adult, the crippled Blake discovers his heritage by transforming back and forth into the “God of Thunder.” He resolves to defend his adopted home across the universe as its most indomitable champion, founding the Avengers with other superhumans, while leading a dual life as a physician. He eventually marries his mortal coworker, Jane Foster.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Bird dude and bolt-thrower

The Falcon - Black Lightning

Landmark characters, these two…

Created by Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan, the Falcon is the first African-American super hero character (Black Panther is of course purely African). In Marvel’s favor, it was not determined that his name needed the prefix “black.” In Marvel’s disfavor, Sam Wilson was initially characterized as an angry street thug, “Snap” who was turned into a good guy by the Red Skull, planning to trigger Wilson’s true inclinations once he gained the trust of his new partner, Captain America.

In any case, Wilson’s better nature prevailed (although his thuggish side has emerged from time to time). He has often been characterized as the defender of Harlem, often serving as a mouthpiece for various writers’ musings on urban decay etc etc.

Clearly, DC felt their first marquee African-American super hero (notwithstanding Teen Titan Mal Duncan) needed a qualifier indicating his ethnicity, whereas there is no White Lantern. Black Lighting co-creator Tony Isabella has revealed that the first draft of the character, courtesy of an unnamed creator, was to be the “Black Bomber,” a —wait for it— disguised white racist! WHOA!

But Isabella and African-American artist Trevor von Eeden instead produced Jefferson Pierce, a street-level crusader who used jive-talk when in uniform, so as to not sound like the school teacher he is. Like the Falcon, initially BL was often used to make equally heavy-handed points regarding the hardships of ghetto life.

Commonalities:
Both are benevolent, thoughtful family men with a social conscience: Wilson is a social worker, Pierce a high school teacher. Both are superb athletes and combatants.

Differences:
Obviously, the Falcon uses mechanical wings and communicates with birds (a la Aquaman), while Black Lighting throws bolts of bio-electrical energy. Not a problem, in my view.

Alternate histories:

FA: Social worker Sam Wilson returns to Harlem and resolves to fight the criminal organizations preying on the neighborhood using a flying harness. The Avengers attempt to recruit him, but he demurs, only to join the Defenders shortly afterwards. After accepting a cabinet position in a corrupt presidential administration, he finally joins the Avengers.

BL: Petty criminal Jefferson Pierce encounters a super villain, who compels a benevolent personality to emerge. Equipped with devices that channel electromagnetic energy, he takes on a heroic guise and partners with a hero to be named later. Pierce’s better nature prevails, and he becomes a veteran hero and schoolteacher, defending his community while also working closely with the individual referred to above, often alongside the Justice League of America.

Monday, January 28, 2008

The most important superheroine = a character with whom fanboys are only dimly aware

Wonder Woman- Thundra

Here we come to a rather imperfect kounterpart match-up —although it may seem spot-on.

Wonder Woman is not only one of DC’s big three franchises, but is without question an icon of American culture. Everyone —your mom, my mailman, your six year old cousin— knows Wonder Woman, the princess of a race of immortal warrior women.

But Marvel has no iconic female character: the closest would be Susan Richards, but she’s hardly a princess of an legendary gyno-cracy, is she? I have struggled to find the ideal kounterpart for Wonder Woman in a MU that tends to proffer female characters that “strike a pose and point,” resulting in laser blasts or somesuch, instead of gals that throw a mean punch.

What about Warbird/Ms Marvel/Carol Danvers, a tough broad character I like very much (and one often subjected to the “women in refrigerators” treatment)? She’d do, were she not an all-american woman. Same goes for She-Hulk. Valkyrie, a representative of the Norse mythology iteration of the Amazon paradigm, would suffice, if that selfsame Asgardian pedigree were not already reserved for another DC classification (it’s fairly obvious that Val’s introduction in the early 70s was to address Marvel’s shortcomings vis-a-vis strong. liberated WW-style characters). Storm, Sue Richard’s only competition as Marvel’s best-known female character and one that comes from an exotic background, would do, were she not to have an even more suitable kounterpart (Storm and WW battled one another in 1995’s DC vs. Marvel crossover). And if Thor was a chick, it’d be a no-brainer. But WW’s provenance as a member of a race populated exclusively by women is her key trait.

Ultimately, I’ll go with Thundra, who comes from an alternate future that finds puny men dominated by “Femizons.” She’s a minor character, evidently created to spar with the Thing in the early ‘70s and, like Valkyrie, to spout feminist boilerplate written by Roy Thomas and his nerdy peers who, I imagine, were struggling with how to address second wave feminism (and defensively at that). I’m not hugely familiar with how she’s been written over the years, but at any rate bet that she was often portrayed as a WW surrogate.

So this pairing is imperfect, in that I’d prefer to assign match-ups based on unintended similarities— or at least similarities that aren’t based on transparent tributes to an iconic character. But this works for the nonce.

Commonalities:
Both are prime exponents of a race of warrior women (that the Amazons have mythological underpinnings and existed on Earth since time immemorial and the Femizons in an alternate timestream isn’t a problem: both locales are separate from the general populace). Both are noble, headstrong and do not need a man to protect them: Wonder Woman’s strength is second only to Superman’s, while Thundra has been said to be the toughest female character in the MU.

Differences:
Wonder Woman is one of the three most respected superhumans in the DC diaspora; being that she’s relatively obscure and only appears every once in a while,Thundra occupies no such position. Thundra also collaborated with villains from time to time, of which WW wouldn’t dream. WW also occasionally adopts a secret identity and avails herself of various mystical totems, both of which do not apply to Thundra.

Alternate histories:

TH: Thundra is the greatest warrior of a matriarchal society in a future timeline, and travels to the modern continuum. While she intends to act as a messenger of peace, she realizes that she must use her unparalleled mettle as a champion of Earth. She helps found the Avengers, and becomes a world figure.

WW: Princess Diana comes to “Man’s World” from the matriarchal society of the Amazons in order to combat the Doom Patrol’s Robotman and thus prove man’s inferiority to woman’s (gawd, that must have been a shitty FF story). She allies with various villains before joining forces with the Doom Patrol and the Justice League. She eventually retires to another plane of existence, occasionally returning to assist superhuman operatives in the present continuum.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Rules of this very trainspotter-y game

I’m going to explain aspects of my methodology here— which is to say, what guidelines are employed to assign kounterparts…

Kounterparts must come from a similar place of origin
Mainly, this comes into play when two characters both come from elsewhere, shall we say: extraterrestrials will be paired with extraterrestrials, visitors from mystic realms are paired with same, characters from a particular country are assigned together (two very similar countries will suffice). This guideline, like all guidelines, will only occasionally be ignored.

Notions of ethnicity and of class are fluid; age less so; but gender is inviolable
An African-American can be paired with a non African-American. A character with roots in the WWII era, for instance, can paired with a character originating in later decades. But a female cannot be paired with a male.

There are too many mutants in the MU for that particular distinction to be obstructive
In the 1980s, Marvel went bananas with the mutants. So many characters are now assigned as such that it’d be counterproductive to be observed across the board (in any case, DC PTB established that tons of their characters are “meta-humans,” i.e. humans born with a extra-normal gene that could result in extraordinary abilities, i.e. “mutants").

There are too many sidekicks/”legacy” characters in the DCU for that particular distinction to be obstructive
Dick Grayson, Wally West, Roy Harper and Donna Troy were all conceived as junior versions of their mentors. But they’ve each existed long enough as distinct characters that to observe “creator intent” in this case would be again counterproductive across the board.

There are too many rich guys and scientists taking on super-heroic guises in the DCU for that particular distinction to be obstructive
Although there is one particular rich scientist in the MU who is not paired with an equivalent along those lines in the DCU: that one is imperfect, and may be subject to change eventually.

Family ties are much too prevalent in both diasporas to be obstructive
Sometimes family relations will be observed, but most often will not.

Characters are paired based on similarity and significance “in universe”
Spider-Man and Superman are the premiere brands, if you will, of Marvel and DC. But (beside the fact that both work for major metropolitan newspapers), they have almost nothing else in common.

Similarly, superhuman abilities are not the be all and end all of how characters are paired together
I find myself more interested in equivalent characterizations than, for instance, whether a shape-shifter is paired another shape-shifter, or a "brick" is paired with another "brick," etc etc…

The parallel universes conceit will not be obstructive
Nuff said, pilgrim…

More to come…

Friday, January 25, 2008

A pair of hardbitten alien soldiers enamored of Earth

Hawkman - Captain Mar-Vell

Quite fond of this one here— I always liked the way both of these characters looked…

I refer here to the Hawkman rejigged by Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert in 1961: a police officer from the planet Thanagar operating on Earth. Like the Silver Age re-introductions of the Flash, Green Lantern and the Atom, the Katar Hol iteration was introduced to the DC diaspora with a science fiction bent (as opposed to the Golden Age version, who has his own equivalent —to be named later).

Post-Crisis, Hawkman possibly suffered the most convolutions of any significant DC character. Pre-Crisis, Thanagar was said to have been one of many peaceful, technocratic societies so beloved of Silver Age DC, but it turned warlike in the late ‘70s, prompting Katar to turn against his race. In 1989, a mini-series called Hawkworld posited that Thanagar had been run by militaristic society for centuries, but the PTB at DC decided that this would take place in the present, thereby making Hol’s first “canonical” appearance contemporaneous and thus mooting all prior continuity. The Hawkman that had served in the JLA was now the Golden Age iteration.

Seems easy enough to say that, after Superboy’s multiverse-shuffling tantrum, that Katar Hol came to Earth from Thanagar, saw the error of his race’s ways, got the “Hawkman” mantle handed over to him by Carter Hall, and away we go: no harm no foul. Instead, the Hawkman franchise is incredibly convoluted. So you’ll forgive me if I go with my eminently sensible solution.

As for Mar-Vell…perhaps understandably, in 1967 Stan Lee wanted to lay claim to the copyright “Captain Marvel,” one that hadn’t been used by DC for the Big Red Cheese since the company won ownership of the character from its lawsuit against Fawcett (don’t ask about the short-lived 1966 version published by MF Enterprises). So Marvel’s version was a dissident Kree soldier on Earth.

No one seemed to know what to do with him at first: Roy Thomas rendered him akin to the "Big Red Cheese" by having him trade places with perennial hanger-on Rick Jones (one would languish in a nether-dimension while the other was on Earth). Finally, Jim Starlin made him a “Cosmic Protector,” with accompanying “cosmic awareness”—this is the version beloved by fandom. In 1982, Starlin had Mar-Vell die of cancer…25 years later, he’s plucked out of the timestream, just before cancer advances so that he can assist in the “Civil War” to no meaningful effect. He also was ret-conned into fathering Genis Vell and Kree/Skrull hybrid the Hulking—ahh, editorial mandates!

Note that the "Big Red Cheese" is the essentially the same person as Billy Batson and is otherwise not an extraterrestrial, so any match-up with Mar-Vell doesn’t work.

Commonalities:
Both are soldiers hailing from militaristic societies who come to Earth, renounce their race’s domineering ways, and champion their adopted world. Both take terran secret identities— HM: Carter Hall, CM: Walter Lawson.

Differences:
Well, Hol has them wings, is fond of archaic weaponry and otherwise boasts enhanced strength common to Thanagarians. He also had a partner/wife Shayera. Whereas Vell’s abilities shifted over time: he began as a Kree soldier and gained the powers mentioned above. His fellow Kree soldier, Una, never had a superhero guise, but as you will see below, I’m going to cheat.

Alternate histories:

CM: Mar Vell, a soldier from the expansionist interstellar society the Kree is stationed on Earth with his wife/colleague Una. The two renounce their homeworld and battle evil doers as Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel (see who Carol Danvers is paired with at a later date) and join the Avengers.

HM: Katar Hol, a soldier from the expansionist interstellar society from Thanagar is stationed on Earth with his colleague/lover Shayera. The two renounce their homeworld, although Shayera is killed by another Thanagarian captain, leaving Hol to battle evil doers as Hawkman on Earth and in the cosmos (he finds time to co-exist with Snapper Carr and father some children as well). He often works with the Justice League, but eventually succumbs to cancer—that is, until an editorial mandate concocts a cheap ploy to resurrect him.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Imperius Rex! And…whatever Aquaman exclaims

Aquaman — Sub-Mariner

This one’s pretty obvious, huh? I’m not aware if it has been definitively documented that writer Mort Weisinger and artist Paul Norris overtly plagiarized Bill Everett’s character Prince Namor, for Aquaman. Seems eminently possible, tho.

What is beyond dispute is that Namor is the first Marvel super-hero character —although his “anti-hero” posture was pronounced from his debut in 1939. Arthur Curry, debuting in 1941, was a much more discreet presence in DC comics— some historians believe that Weisinger, the Superman editor in the ‘50s and ‘60s, kept his creation in print long after most super hero titles ceased publication.

In any case, both are key to both diasporas: Namor for the reason cited above, Aquaman simply due to his inclusion in the 1970s Saturday morning cartoon Super Friends (which of course leads to non-comic readers knowing his name, and thus thinking he’s goofy, and thus Entourage, etc. etc.…). And both deserve respekk…

Commonalities:
Both are —despite frequent sabbaticals and exiles— the mighty Kings of Atlantis, and thus function best in the ocean. Beginning in the late 1980s, DC began to characterize Aquaman as a regal, almost arrogant presence —which sounds familiar. Occasionally, Namor has been shown to be weakened when out of water for a long time, which echoes a long-standing but abandoned (I think!) conceit where Aquaman couldn’t be out of water for more than hour.

Differences:
Subby couldn’t command aquatic life; Aquaman does! Subby can fly via ankle-wings; Aquaman cannot. For many years, both were the spawn of a surface-dwelling father and Atlantean mother: post-crisis, Aquaman’s identity was shown to be Orin, son of an Atlantean wizard and a princess of same.

Alternate histories:

AM: A half-breed “avenging son” emerges immediately before World War II, defends his home of Atlantis against surface dwellers until joining with other operatives against the Axis powers. He becomes an amnesiac vagabond for many years until his memory returns after an encounter with the Doom Patrol. Since then, he ascends to the throne of Atlantis, marries noblewoman Mera, briefly joins the Justice League and alternately antagonizes or works with other superhumans.

SM: An Atlantean refugee emerges in the surface world as the King of the Seven Seas and co-founds the Avengers. He claims his throne in Atlantis, marries a woman named Dorma and fathers a child who is killed in infancy. After many years as a world leader, he is turned into a “Dweller of the Deep,” is replaced by a younger iteration and then dies— until such time as a editorial mandate revives him.

Friday, January 18, 2008

A first family and some "freaks"

Fantastic Four- Doom Patrol

Give or take Spider-Man, the FF pretty much is Marvel, for reasons anyone likely to read these words understand. Whereas the Doom Patrol was DC’s response to Marvel: here were “freakish” characters who squabbled and were misunderstood by the general populace.

Should anyone be moved to comment here (or, ahem, ever), I would imagine that the FF's similarities to the Jack Kirby-created Challengers of the Unknown would be brought up. I would also imagine that Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol would be mentioned as well, but I have never read any of the trades. But essentially, I think the two teams have more in common than not.

Mr. Fantastic- Mento

Commonalities:
Both are real smart guys, and Steve Dayton’s telekinesis and Reed Richard’s elasticity achieve similar ends. Both are married respectively to the two women cited below.

Differences:
“World’s Fifth Richest Man” Dayton was only an occasional member of the DP, and was often portrayed as an arrogant dilettante, whereas Richards is merely absent-minded and pedantic. Dayton also went nuts and became the Crimelord apparently, and has only recently been redeemed in Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans. Richards has only recently been written as misguided vis-a-vis Civil War.

Invisible Woman- Elasti Girl

Commonalities:
Both are the mother figures of their teams; you could say that Rita Farr becoming very small achieves the same purpose as Susan Richards becoming invisible, and Farr’s becoming a giant achieves the same purpose as Richards’ forcefields (you could say that the better matchup, ability-wise, would be Reed = Rita, Sue = Steve, but gender distinctions will remain enforced here).

Differences:

Being that Farr was the only death that stuck from DP’s 1968’s series finale (for four decades), I don’t believe she developed much past the one-dimension characterization common to female characters in both Marvel and DC universes (I could be wrong about this). After a good 20 years as a fourth wheel, in 1981 Susan was rendered more or less the strongest female character Marvel’s got—for which we can thank the ever-controversial John Byrne.

Thing- Robotman

Commonalities:
One of the most perfect matchups: Ben Grimm and Cliff Steele are tough guys with hearts ‘a gold who are trapped in monstrous forms they no likey…

Differences:
Only that Grimm can change to human form back from time: Steele cannot.

Human Torch- Negative Man

Commonalities:
The similarity of a flaming dude and a dude who can send a radioactive shadow hurtling around seems pretty on point to me.

Differences:
I’m not sure how Larry Trainor was characterized in the 1960s, other than the fact that he was unhappy at the prospect of spending his life swaddled in bandages. Seems a far cry from the happy go lucky Johnny Storm. Trainor is not related to Farr, but, as we will see going forward, family ties are so numerous in both universes that it would be counterproductive to let them dictate every equivalent.

You’ll notice I did not include Niles Caulder: he’ll be included another time in a post regarding another team matchup…

Alternate histories:

FF: Three individuals are separately altered by cosmic rays, and are brought together by a gentleman to be named later to combat evil. They are joined by Reed Richards and another younger person (also to be named later), but are soon slaughtered—although, by the providence of ret-con, they eventually are resurrected.

DP: Four good friends are mutually beset by trauma, and band together to combat evil. The group are regarded as the beacons of a new heroic age (a few members are occasionally substituted for by individuals—again, to be named later).

Monday, January 14, 2008

Two Sweethearts of the superhero set, forever dicked around

Wonder Girl/Donna Troy—Marvel Girl/Jean Grey

Apparently, at some convention or other recently, DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio, when asked under what alias Troy should be referred these days, remarked that she’s best known by her given name: “she’s DC’s Jean Grey.”

That’s about right, methinks. Both are the sweethearts of the teams for which they are mainstays. Both have been killed, resurrected and jerked around via ret-cons so many times that I simply can’t keep track of their respective comings and goings.

It is clear that Troy appeared in Teen Titans (1965) after writer Bob Haney failed to notice that the “Wonder Girl” running around in Wonder Woman for some years by that time was merely a magical duplicate (alongside Wonder Tot!) of Princess Diana. In an early instance of ret-conning, Marv Wolfman established that she was an American orphan brought to Paradise Island in a 1969 TT story; he went on explore her origins in a 1983 New Teen Titans story that remains her clearest, most sensible back story.

But the Crisis saw to it that, since Princess Diana was new to Man’s World in “the present” and Donna was not, she needed a new backstory. Since then, her history has been thrown hither and yon, most often incomprehensibly. So I’m going with Wolfman’s story: he’s her definitive scribe, anyway (although it should be noted Wolfman also transparently inserted a surrogate for himself into NTT in the form of Terry Long, Donna’’s husband).

As for Grey: Initially, in Stan Lee and Roy Thomas’ telling, she simply was the X-chick. But her transformation into the Phoenix (1976) and subsequent rampage as the Dark Phoenix and death (1980) basically kicked off the X-mania that set the tone for superhero comics in the 1980s. By 1985, a ret-con established that the “Real Jean Grey” had actually lain dormant in Jamaica Bay while a “Phoenix-Force” assumed her persona for the events of the Dark Phoenix Saga, thus freeing the revived Jean up to rejoin the original X-Men in the X-Factor book.

This occurred at the beginning of endless convolutions in the X-books that continues to this day (apparently Jean and Scott Summers went off into the future for some reason for a time). She’s now dead again…right? It’s too goddamn much for me to fathom.

Commonalities:
Chiefly, this would be that they’re both key to their respective franchises and are both noble, capable gals: homecoming queens in the best sense. Both were subsumed into cosmic entities for a time.

Differences:
Initially, Donna is Wonder Woman the Second: strength, flight and sundry empathic abilities, whereas Jean is telepathic and telekinetic.

Alternate histories:

JG: An orphan's innate telepathic and telekinetic abilities are nurtured in a future society populated by "femizons." She finds her most enduring family with the X-Men, and then goes through the fucking wringer over and over again, discovering her “true” origins numerous times, dying and then being resurrected.

DT: A young girl becomes a mainstay of the Teen Titans, using her immense strength and ability to fly. Her persona is adopted by the Dark Angel entity, while she hibernates. She returns to the Titans and serves with distinction for many years before dying—that is, until editorial PTB sees fit to bring her back.

Friday, January 11, 2008

And there came a day like no other…

…a day that found a guy starting a blog devoted to perhaps the most wonky and yet possibly purposeless pursuit ever devised by a lapsed fanboy…

Roundabout the age of 10, as I started collecting comic books, I began to devise a system (and methodology) wherein I’d try to assign equivalents across the DC and Marvel universes. Now, as a chap who put aside funny-books so as to improve his chances towards getting better acquainted with female genitalia but has lately revisted superhero fiction, I started the project up again and have resolved to devote this blog to it.

I should say that I don’t buy many comics these days: I like to buy trades composed of vintage comics when finances allow. Using the computah, I can keep up with the events of this Crisis and that Civil War, to say nothing of researching characters and so on. I should also say that my preferences are those of a guy who grew up on 70s-80s comics and thus decompression and current art trends do not appeal to me. This is not to say that I have an axe to grind with current comics creators.

Typically, what powers or skills characters might have in common are not necessarily emphasized. My interest tends to lie with a character’s temperament, motivations, where they come from…y’know, what they’re like! That said, family ties are sometimes relevant, sometimes not. Same goes for ret-cons. I will go into further details regarding my methodology—as well as including links and possibly images— as it develops.

So! Assuming someone will ever drop by here, please let me know what you think! I eagerly await the thoughtful, restrained comments known to emanate from visitors to comic book blogs ‘n’ message boards!

Martian Manhunter- Silver Surfer

Commonalities: Both are strangers in a strange land: SS has always been played as such, whereas JJ/MM has been defined thusly at least since the ‘80s. Both vacillate between alienation and affection for earthlings: this is what defines both characters, in my view.

Differences: SS wields the power cosmic, which has been shown to do pretty much anything creators want at a particular time; whereas JJ/MM reads minds, shapeshifts, can become intanglble, shoots rays out of his eyes, and is real strong: he’s often referred to as the “Swiss Army Knife of Superheroes.” So while their abilities do not line up precisely, both are so ill-defined (or versatile!) as to not matter much to me. Neither’s powers are what is key to each character, anyway.

Alternate histories:

MM: Was stranded on Earth for some time, struggles to understand humanity, longs for his lost love and associates with other operatives occasionally.

SS: Was inadvertantly spirited to Earth by a scientist, worked alone until joining the Avengers, struggles to understand humanity, longs for his deceased family.