I'm entering the weekend after a week resembling the folk story of the "Bloody Hands", due to increasingly cold and dry conditions in Michigan for weather, and having my hands become BRUTALIZED hunks of meat and bone at my workplace. Still, I do have an upcoming interview for another position on Monday, and have yet to hear back on other options that have extended some leads, so I cannot give up on hope for a better paying... and FAR less physically and mentally taxing... employment situation. At least I'm 80% over the cold I endured this past weekend; my girlfriend already had hers well in position by the time I saw her, so it's not as if she passed me her illness. Tonight SHOULD prove to be interesting, since I may be going to a "Haunted Forest" attraction with her and her visiting aunt, and apparently I am given a pass on helping out prepare dinner, since I actively handled all of last weekend's dinner preparations, due to her being otherwise occupied.
One caveat before I begin the first of this weekend's entry: I realize SOME may consider two "Halloween-themed" entries to be a bit overkill, but since next Friday I'm fairly certainly I'll be FAR too exhausted to write a date-appropriate entry, and with my wanting to find a less physically intensive position to get back into a semi-daily blog entry schedule, I would fully miss the Halloween date for posting. So, why not double-up on a blog celebration for the occasion?!? (And it's not like I'm going to totally let Halloween slide for the festivities. I get the feeling a much-needed revisit of "Burial Ground: Nights of Terror" will be in order! Now let's light the carved pumpkins, fill the candy dishes, and watch out... because the BOOGEYMAN IS LOOKING FOR YOU!!! (Especially if you have a latter year endorsement deal with Activia!)
For the first of my Halloween entries, I present a merging of universes... Sort of like a "reaching" version of crossing over the Universal Studios famed monster creations, and finding their spiritual successors in the Marvel Universe. (Who had a rather sizable week of their own with the "Avengers 2: Age of Ultron" trailer being revealed. Two words that summarize my thoughts on said trailer: CANNOT WAIT!") Stan Lee has often mentioned many of his Marvel creations were inspired by the Horror features he grew up watching, and in the limbo years of the superhero bust, Marvel... then known as Timely Comics... published many code-approved Horror titles featuring many a gigantic beast of terror. (And also the first appearances of that purple-trunked dragon, Fin Fang Foom, and everyone's favorite living tree, Groot!) So no real surprise the Marvel Universe would offer readers MANY options for characters to associate with monstrous icons that captured silver-screen fame! And here's my choices for the matches I picked for those Universal cinematic icons!
Morbius the Living Vampire/Dracula: This comparison may not be the MOST imaginative, but also bear in mind that Marvel had the publishing rights for a comic book FEATURING that famous Transylvanian that doesn't drink... wine. And that would have been FAAAR too easy to draw a comparison. So why not offer up the next best character to draw a correlation line, than Marvel's own "Living Vampire", Michael Morbius, who first saw life in "Amazing Spider-Man #101"! But unlike Count Dracula, Michael Morbius developed his taste for life-giving blood via an accident of science, with his seeking a cure for a genetic blood disorder resulting in his becoming a semi-member of the "undead". Y'see... Morbius is called the "Living Vampire" because he never technically "died" to gain his status. But after his ill-fated transformation, he gained the traits of traditional vampires; super strength, flight abilities, and an aversion to daylight. Morbius, in recent years, has gained more of a heroic reputation than his original genesis, which was more of a conflicted creature of the night that sided a BIT more towards the reactionary "villain" type, but if you have a fix for a character that can satisfy your interest in vampiric activity... or your lust for VERY high red shirt collars, with an exposed chest piece... then you cannot go wrong with Morbius the Living Vampire!
Werewolf By Night/Wolfman: Some men are cursed with lycanthropy via a werewolf attack. Some men, like the soon-to-be-detail Jack Russell... yes, that IS really his name... inherit their lycanthropy via family lineage. (And some men, like myself, can thank real-life genetics for granting them enough body hair to make someone THINK they are potentially part lycanthrope!) But Mr. Russell became a less-than-proud family inheritor to the Russoff werewolf curse, and after revenging himself on a rogue family wolfish killer, sought to overcome his bestial nature by doing "good" with his new found powers. And that has been an ongoing battle for Jack Russell since his first appearance in "Marvel Spotlight #2". Like many a famed lycanthrope, Jack's existence is based on his trying to overcome his savage bestial nature. UNLIKE many "angry furballs", Jack Russell isn't quick to start munching on potential victims, due to the character's relative control over his urges. And if it weren't for Jack's curse, we never would've also seen the first appearance of Marc Spector, better known to Marvel aficionados as Moon Knight!
Franken-Castle/Frankenstein's Monster: This COULD be another case as mentioned with Dracula, since the monster of Victor Frankenstein had a healthy publishing un-life in his own Marvel title. But all it took was Norman Osborn, AKA the Green Goblin, to gain control of the Marvel Universe to set up the "Dark Reign" event, to kickstart a NEW take on the Monster that Frankenstein built. When Norman was given the keys to S.H.I.E.L.D., after his assassination of the Skrull Queen, he decided some of his more intimate thorns in his side needed dealing with. One such thorn was Frank Castle, better known as the Punisher. To achieve such means, Norman sent his own H.A.M.M.E.R. security agents out to pursue Frank, and essentially herd him into a battle against an Osborn pawn, Daken... the son of Logan/Wolverine. Now Frank has had some battles against Wolverine, in the past, but Daken was an unknown factor, and the final equation of that battle involved Frank Castle being turned into sections of cold cuts. But his parts are found by the Legion of Monsters... who ALSO count Morbius and Jack Russell in their membership... and with a lil' help from Morbius' surgical know-how, Frank Castle lived on as a patchwork Punisher! During this particular storyline, the Legion recruited Frank to assist in their conflict with Japanese monster hunters, and this even led into a rematch with Daken... which Frank DEFINITELY got the upper hand on, despite the protestations of Wolverine. It was due to the magicks of the mystic Bloodstone that restored Frank Castle to the land of proper "living", but honestly... one of the Punisher's most entertaining runs was when he went the living-jigsaw path, and unloaded some ammo on rival monsters and monster-hunters ALIKE!
The Living Mummy/The Mummy: Now this entry I'm going to have to REALLY piece together some internet information. The Living Mummy is a character I KNOW about, but I never read any of his adventures, and had VERY limited exposure to his meetings with the rest of the Marvel universe. But according to my research, Imhotep certainly had an interesting Marvel legacy character in N'Kantu... who is ANOTHER not-quite-dead version of an undead character! First appearing in "Supernatural Thrillers #5", N'Kantu actually had his roots in Africa over Egypt. N'Kantu was of royal blood, and after gaining the throne after his father's untimely death, upon returning from a village hunting trip, finds his turf taken over by Egyptians, and his surviving villagers about to be captured as slaves. N'Kantu attempts a rebellion against his captors, and the ruling Pharaoh... whom he slays... but the Pharaoh's priest sprays a paralyzing agent into N'Kantu's face, and begins a rapid operation of mummification of the rebellion leader. Interesting thing about paralyzing agents... APPARENTLY even after your vital fluids have been drained from your body, you aren't "DEAD", since you're still in a phase of "stasis". After the agent wears off on N'Kantu in "modern day", he awakens with superhuman strength and rock-hard skin from the drainage of his fluids, in exchange for burial coagulants. Because... COMIC BOOK SCIENCE? Still, while he's not held a regular title of his own for a stretch of time, N'Kantu has not done TOO badly for himself, since he's been in Marvel existence since his "modern day" revival in the early 70's.
Mr. Hyde/Mr Hyde: You see the matching names, and probably wonder, "Okay... Now you're just being LAZY! THEY'RE THE SAME CHARACTER!". Shame on you if that WAS your assumption! You see, the character behind the Robert Louis Stephenson novel, Dr. Henry Jekyll, explored what went the make-up of the darkness of humanity for noble reasons, and that resulted in the tragic creation of Edward Hyde, a savage and bestial killer. However, Marvel's Calvin Zabo started off as a pretty rotten egg, and upon being rejected by a prestigious medical position by Donald Blake... you may know him better as a golden-locked Thunder God by the name of Thor... decided to WILLINGLY unleash such a bestial side with a chemical compound of his own make in "Journey Into Mystery #99". (By the way, he wanted the job to STEAL medical secrets and funding for his own gains.) Thus was born Calvin Zabo's new existence as Mr. Hyde, who would frequently clash with Thor, Daredevil, and even Spider-Man. He would EVEN go on to form an unusual "buddy cop" duo team with the Cobra! But in recent years, Calvin got a chance to redeem some of his bad reputation as a member of Luke Cage's Thunderbolts squad. (Someday I should REALLY write an entry about the Thunderbolts...)
Triton/Creature From the Black Lagoon: The Inhumans made sure that you didn't have to take a trip to the Amazon to see a human/aquatic life form hybrid! All they did, in their Arctic sanctuary of Attilan, is make sure Triton was exposed to the Terrigen mists to gain his water-based powers. He ALSO has one heads-up on the Fishman of the Amazon... Royal blood! Brother to Karnak... he who can spot a breaking point in ANY object... and cousin to pretty much EVERY member of the Inhuman ruling family, ole' Triton's living on easy street! (And he DOES carry on the proud tradition of pretty much EVERY Marvel water-based character, and sports a fair hair-trigger temper. Must be due to the fact that he's the most water-reliant character of the Marvel aqua-dwellers. Basically he has to wear a special apparatus to survive on the surface, otherwise he just physically grows weaker in exposure to any non-water environment.) I also think that outside of the royalty connection, the super-strength, and his decidedly exotic locale, Triton sports ANOTHER slight appeal over the Creature: DOSE GLOVES, TRUNKS, AND BOOTS!!! Seriously, you have to be a MAJOR power player to actively decide that dark pink is going to be your coverage for just your mid-section, your feet, and your hands!
Invisible Woman/Invisible Man: There's more of a change here than just switching out sexes. You see, Griffin, the main character of H.G. Well's "Invisible Man", discovers his invisibility through an accident of science, and lets the secret of invisibility corrupt him into the path of villainy. Susan Storm/Richards discovers HER invisibility in "Fantastic Four #1", after being bombarded by cosmic rays from a failed space ship launch, and then investigating hers, along with her fellow team mates' physical changes after a crash landing. Sue Storm DOES feature a major advantage over Griffin; our unfortunate scientist is permanently rendered physically invisible, whereas Sue can CONTROL whenever she becomes part of the visible spectrum. Having the ability to generate force fields, and force projectiles, also doesn't hurt Sue's viability as more of a "power player" than the sad story of Griffin's fall from scientific grace. And even with the impending cancellation of the "Fantastic Four" title as a whole, you can bet Sue Storm won't COMPLETELY... ahem... "disappear". (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
Doctor Doom/Phantom of the Opera: We end today's comparison entry with a look at two of fiction's most famous figures of disfigured fury. On the one hand, we have Gaston Leroux's Erik, who "haunted" an opera house to gain the love of Christine, by means of manipulation and murder. On the other hand, we have Victor Von Doom, a child of a witch, and a youth of a war-torn country, who becomes malicious monarch, master of science and seeker of magic, and yes... even makes room in his heart for an interest in Susan Storm! But whereas Erik was born with his revolting physical features... twisting his heart and mind, Victor grew into a handsome young man, before an experiment disfigures his "beautiful features". (Though HOW SEVERE his injuries were, before he ultimately broiled his face by placing on a red-hot mask, has been a subject of various comic book debates.) But while their origins, and their ultimate fates, vary wildly, the fact that they are both villains by action... but carry twisted nobility in their hearts... make these two characters nearly siblings!
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