Mon-El- Balder
Here the resident nurd delves into Legion of Super-Heroes lore, which has undergone at least four, count ‘em, four reboots in the past twenty years. As far as I can tell, Mon-El’s history has reverted back to the way it was from 1961 to the late ‘80s.
As for Balder, an ancient mythological figure refigured for the MU? I recently bought a TPB comprised of the first few issues of Walter Simonson’s Mighty Thor run in the 1980s. I was pleased to again encounter Simonson’s characterization of Thor’s sensitive, doomed brother as a fat depressive.
Should I ever get around to further Legion-Guardians pairings, I’ll probably have to assign a lot of cosmic Marvel characters that were never associated to the Guardians of the Galaxy with the much more numerous Legionnaires. I always thought Marvel could do more with the Guardians franchise: which is to say, exploring a future MU, and not making a modern version tied to this Annihilation event I have not read, which is what has transpired as of late.
Commonalities:
Mon-El was introduced as “Superboy’s Big Brother” in 1961, with what was very likely no intention to ever use the character again. But he was transferred to the new Legion of Super-Heroes franchise as a Superboy surrogate, which would seem to make a pairing with Thor’s younger brother. Also, both have odd weaknesses: Mon-El’s is lead, Balder’s is… mistletoe!
Differences:
Only that Balder was never in the Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s, like, immortal!
Alternate histories:
ME: Mon-El is the half-brother of Kal-El; while Superman defends Earth, Mon-El remains on Krypton and aids his father Jor-El against the likes of General Zod and other native antagonists. Mon-El is nearly as powerful as Kal-El, but his death was long believed to be the impetus of the destruction of Krypton. While this came to pass, the essences of Mon-El and his fellow Kryptonians have been resurrected on Earth.
BA: Balder is native to the Vanir, a race of powerful beings that exist near Asgard and have equivalent abilities to Asgardians. He learns of Thor, the last survivor of Ragnarok, and travels to modern-day Earth where he befriends the young demi-deity. Balder is struck by a weapon bearing a sprig of mistletoe, which is foretold as the only substance that can damage him. In order to survive, he retires to a netherworld, where he remains until thirty centuries later. Balder emerges and joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, the 30th century’s premiere intergalactic peacekeeping organization.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Slice and dice
Katana- Colleen Wing
So obvious that ain’t no comment necessary.
Commonalities:
Ladies! Swords! From the same country!
Differences:
Only that Tatsu is full blooded Japanese, and Wing’s pop was an American white fella.
Alternate histories:
KA: Tatsu Yamauchi is raised in Japan and grows up learning the ways of the samurai. She emigrates to America and partners with policewoman Karen Beecher; the two establish a private investigation firm and often ally with the superhuman operatives Steel and Thunderbolt.
CW: Colleen Wing is raised in Japan; she avenges her husband‘s murder by his brother and then trains in the ways of the samurai. She leaves Japan, encounters Captain America and joins his newly constituted Defenders with the Falcon, Sandman and two other operatives, with whom Wing has served sporadically.
So obvious that ain’t no comment necessary.
Commonalities:
Ladies! Swords! From the same country!
Differences:
Only that Tatsu is full blooded Japanese, and Wing’s pop was an American white fella.
Alternate histories:
KA: Tatsu Yamauchi is raised in Japan and grows up learning the ways of the samurai. She emigrates to America and partners with policewoman Karen Beecher; the two establish a private investigation firm and often ally with the superhuman operatives Steel and Thunderbolt.
CW: Colleen Wing is raised in Japan; she avenges her husband‘s murder by his brother and then trains in the ways of the samurai. She leaves Japan, encounters Captain America and joins his newly constituted Defenders with the Falcon, Sandman and two other operatives, with whom Wing has served sporadically.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Greatest (Worst?) Nazi in Funny Books, and Naja-Naja
Kobra- Red Skull
This pairing demonstrates considerable dissonance, in that there is no key, defining Nazi supervillain in the DC universe.
In the period immediately preceding World War II, DC— then known as National Comics— did not much use the Third Reich as an antagonist for their heroes. Superman, Batman et al opposed gangsters and mad scientists, but the menace that threatened America and its allies was mostly ignored. When war was declared, there were pro forma efforts at propaganda, where Superman fucked with Hitler and Tojo (“dirty japs/nips were, interestingly, very popular in comic books as easily caricatured bucktoothed fiends) briefly, members of the Justice Society enlisted, and so forth.
Marvel, then known as Timely, was much, much more aggressive. The cover of Captain America #1, portrayed the titular hero punching “Herr Wolf” square in the jaw: Cap spent the rest of the war combating the Third Reich at home and abroad. Most of the company’s characters did the same.
And the Red Skull was Captain America’s opposite number, emblemizing everything Joe Simon and Jack Kirby could fathom of the Third Reich’s perfidy in the early ‘40s. And when the Marvel Age dawned in the 1960s, the Skull was brought back as a proxy for the worst supervillain ever —one didn’t need to be cooked up by comic book creators— and has since been the bad guy that most of Marvel’s other bad guys hate.
But DC never had a Nazi antagonist that really truly stuck. Captain Nazi, who was created to mess with Captain Marvel in the '40s. never did the trick, and neither did Baron Blitzkrieg, who was created in the 1970s. So I’m going to put the Skull with Kobra, a co-creation of Jack Kirby from the 1970s.
Kobra is not a Nazi, but he has been a very prominent and very, very evil terrorist mastermind whose exploits seemed much more Satanic than the Joker or Lex Luthor. "Naja-Naja" is the leader of a Eastern anarcho-religious cult bent on subjugating the world: doesn't line up precisely with the boogey-men that bedevil the West these days, but it's close enuff.
Commonalities:
Both are pretty much the worst of the worst, as far as mortals born on Earth are concerned.
Differences:
Kobra is not a Nazi. The Red Skull is, barring the obvious example via real world, the Nazi.
Alternate histories:
KO: A sociopath is picked and then personally trained by Adolf Hitler to be the personification of Nazi terror worldwide in World War II: the man is then dubbed Kobra and supervises espionage and sabotage for the Third Reich in Europe and America. His success inspires the United States to introduce Batman as Kobra’s opposite number. Kobra survives the end of the war, and then resurfaces in recent years: he is bent on ushering in an “age of chaos” and subsequent world domination. Despite various seeming demises, Kobra remains Batman’s most implacable foe: He has been opposed by most of the superhuman community and is actively despised by most in the criminal fraternity.
RS: As a child, Johann Schmidt is kidnapped by a organization that has been agitating for the Third Reich’s return to power since 1945. Known as the Red Skull, he is trained to be an implacable combatant, criminal mastermind and sadistic Nazi Ideologue. As the organization rises to be the most feared international terrorist organization worldwide, the Skull is opposed by the majority of superhuman community—notably, he is one of the few to ever defeat Captain America in hand-to-hand combat. After a particularly and wide-ranging deadly act of violence, he is killed by Magneto, although his organization remains dedicated to his aims.
This pairing demonstrates considerable dissonance, in that there is no key, defining Nazi supervillain in the DC universe.
In the period immediately preceding World War II, DC— then known as National Comics— did not much use the Third Reich as an antagonist for their heroes. Superman, Batman et al opposed gangsters and mad scientists, but the menace that threatened America and its allies was mostly ignored. When war was declared, there were pro forma efforts at propaganda, where Superman fucked with Hitler and Tojo (“dirty japs/nips were, interestingly, very popular in comic books as easily caricatured bucktoothed fiends) briefly, members of the Justice Society enlisted, and so forth.
Marvel, then known as Timely, was much, much more aggressive. The cover of Captain America #1, portrayed the titular hero punching “Herr Wolf” square in the jaw: Cap spent the rest of the war combating the Third Reich at home and abroad. Most of the company’s characters did the same.
And the Red Skull was Captain America’s opposite number, emblemizing everything Joe Simon and Jack Kirby could fathom of the Third Reich’s perfidy in the early ‘40s. And when the Marvel Age dawned in the 1960s, the Skull was brought back as a proxy for the worst supervillain ever —one didn’t need to be cooked up by comic book creators— and has since been the bad guy that most of Marvel’s other bad guys hate.
But DC never had a Nazi antagonist that really truly stuck. Captain Nazi, who was created to mess with Captain Marvel in the '40s. never did the trick, and neither did Baron Blitzkrieg, who was created in the 1970s. So I’m going to put the Skull with Kobra, a co-creation of Jack Kirby from the 1970s.
Kobra is not a Nazi, but he has been a very prominent and very, very evil terrorist mastermind whose exploits seemed much more Satanic than the Joker or Lex Luthor. "Naja-Naja" is the leader of a Eastern anarcho-religious cult bent on subjugating the world: doesn't line up precisely with the boogey-men that bedevil the West these days, but it's close enuff.
Commonalities:
Both are pretty much the worst of the worst, as far as mortals born on Earth are concerned.
Differences:
Kobra is not a Nazi. The Red Skull is, barring the obvious example via real world, the Nazi.
Alternate histories:
KO: A sociopath is picked and then personally trained by Adolf Hitler to be the personification of Nazi terror worldwide in World War II: the man is then dubbed Kobra and supervises espionage and sabotage for the Third Reich in Europe and America. His success inspires the United States to introduce Batman as Kobra’s opposite number. Kobra survives the end of the war, and then resurfaces in recent years: he is bent on ushering in an “age of chaos” and subsequent world domination. Despite various seeming demises, Kobra remains Batman’s most implacable foe: He has been opposed by most of the superhuman community and is actively despised by most in the criminal fraternity.
RS: As a child, Johann Schmidt is kidnapped by a organization that has been agitating for the Third Reich’s return to power since 1945. Known as the Red Skull, he is trained to be an implacable combatant, criminal mastermind and sadistic Nazi Ideologue. As the organization rises to be the most feared international terrorist organization worldwide, the Skull is opposed by the majority of superhuman community—notably, he is one of the few to ever defeat Captain America in hand-to-hand combat. After a particularly and wide-ranging deadly act of violence, he is killed by Magneto, although his organization remains dedicated to his aims.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)