{"id":2519,"date":"2015-12-01T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T17:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=2519"},"modified":"2024-01-09T09:34:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T17:34:29","slug":"maggies-world-035-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/maggies-world-035-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie\u2019s World 035: Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MAGGIE’S WORLD BY MAGGIE THOMPSON<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie\u2019s World 035: Changes<\/h1>\n\n\n
Maggie Thompson<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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As 2015 began to wrap up, I was thinking about the assortment of wonderful comics released during the year\u2014and that led me to memories of the successes of comics in other media. That, in turn, reminded me that many folks\u2019 earliest exposure to comic book characters has been in other forms. Which, in turn, can lock their expectations into what they think a character \u201cshould\u201d be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frequently, what attracts a fan to a comics character in the first place is dropped in later versions, whether in comic books or not. And all that leads me to my current theory: The character that especially resonates with us at ages 10-12 tends to be the version that we consider the \u201creal\u201d character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jack Cole\u2019s Plastic Man ran through a vast variety of slapstick gags in the Golden Age. \u00a9 2015 DC Comics. Elongated Man tended to be light-hearted but not on Cole\u2019s level. Jiminy Pete! \u00a9 2015 DC Comics. Whew! Mister Fantastic simply projected earnest determination \u00a9 2015 Marvel Characters, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For Example<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s Plastic Man. Though the folks at Quality clearly thought The Firebrand was going to be their breakout star, Plastic Man was also introduced in Police Comics<\/em> #1 (August 1941). Jack Cole dreamed him up before I was born\u2014but Plas and Woozy Winks were still clowning around by the time I had my disposable income of a dime a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a superhero whose stretchy form allowed for a variety of sight gags just right for me as a kid. For that reason, those stories continue to resonate for me today. Let\u2019s face it: If you seriously consider stretchiness to be an actual human ability, you\u2019ve tossed a bunch of natural laws out of the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Quality left the field following the advent of the Comics Code, the lure of the stretchy guy remained. DC gave us Elongated Man in 1960. Marvel offered Mister Fantastic the next year. And DC brought back the Quality character himself (sort of) in House of Mystery<\/em> #160 (July 1966) via the Robby Reed \u201cDial H for Hero\u201d (Sockamagee!) story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among my favorites from DC, it\u2019s Kyle Baker\u2019s version in 2004 that remains dear. Nevertheless, when I think of \u201cmy\u201d Plastic Man, it\u2019s Jack Cole\u2019s stories that spring to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robotman was a cheery all-around handy guy to have on hand. (In \u201cRobotman Runs a Restaurant,\u201d he even built a cigarette machine into his arm for the convenience of the customers.) \u00a9 2015 DC Comics. In the Silver Age, Robotman was more focused on his angst. \u00a9 2015 DC Comics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Second-string Characters<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

How much do you know about the Golden Age Robotman? He was just a guy (Dr. Robert Crane, later adopting the name Paul Dennis) whose brain was transplanted into a cyborg body (hey, it happens) in DC\u2019s Star Spangled Comics<\/em> #7 (April 1942) in a story by Jerry Siegel and Leo Nowak. His adventures had been running for years by the time I was reading them in Detective Comics<\/em>, where they ran till #202 (December 1953). He was perky, thoughtful, amiable, and helpful: Sort of the way you\u2019d like to think you\u2019d be under the circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When DC introduced a Silver Age version of Robotman in My Greatest Adventure<\/em> #80 (June 1963) in a story by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, and Bruno Premiani, he had a different identity (Cliff Steele). Yes, it was another brain-in-a-metal-body hero\u2014but with a difference. This guy was depressed, more of a serious action guy, and joined the Doom Patrol with another bunch of occasionally angry super-folks. (What do you expect from characters whose self-image is that of a Doom Patrol?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are clearly many directions that creators can take with this sort of idea. (Note, for example, the Doom Patrol\u2019s opponent supervillain, The Brain\u2014just another solo brain, but that guy spent most of his time in a jar.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[To digress: It should be noted here that both the Golden Age and Silver Age characters of Robotman were introduced before the brain-in-a-metal-body known as a Cyberman was created by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis for \u201cThe Tenth Planet.\u201d That serial began October 8, 1966, on the BBC-TV series Doctor Who<\/em>. Do you suppose Pedler and Davis had read either of the comic-book versions? (A further footnote: That was the serial that revamped another pop-culture icon, when The Doctor regenerated from actor William Hartnell to actor Patrick Troughton. End of the digression\u2019s digression.)]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Golden Age Sandman was \u201cjust an ordinary fellow.\u201d \u00a9 2015 DC Comics. Sandman in the late 1980s was one of The Endless. \u00a9 2015 DC Comics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes It\u2019s Mostly the Name<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the best theme-and-variations is another DC character: Sandman. In the Golden Age, he was Wesley Dodds, created in 1939 by Gardner Fox and Bert Christman for New York World\u2019s Fair<\/em> #1 and Adventure Comics<\/em> #40 (July)\u2014lasting through #102 (March 1945)\u2014and he had a sleeping-gas gun to remove bad guys as a threat. (He also founded the Justice Society of America, but I digress again.) He popped up in the Silver Age in Justice League of America<\/em> #46 (August 1966). And DC revisited Dodds\u2019 comics career in Sandman Mystery Theatre<\/em> (April 1993).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you know what I\u2019m talking about, right? While retaining the character\u2019s connection to Dodds, Neil Gaiman made a radical departure with The Sandman<\/em> #1 (January 1989).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, while I\u2019d come across the Golden Age character in my pre-teen years, he\u2019d never resonated. So it\u2019s Gaiman\u2019s creation that remains \u201cmy\u201d Sandman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those Are Only a Few<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

There are more, more, more. Fawcett\u2019s Captain Marvel. DC\u2019s Tommy Tomorrow. Green Arrow. Heck, Marvel\u2019s Captain Marvel, come to think of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intriguingly, Marvel\u2019s Sub-Mariner and Captain America were brought back as their Golden Age selves. Because comic books. But Marvel\u2019s Golden Age Human Torch (who wasn\u2019t human, come to think of it) was a sort of wiser big brother who spent many dialogue balloons explaining the action to the young, hotheaded Toro. Whereas the Silver Age Torch originated as, yes, a young hothead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy\u201d Donald Duck was the comic-book version by the ever-inventive Carl Barks. Because I saw the animated version only now and then, but Walt Disney\u2019s Comics<\/em> and Stories<\/em> arrived in my mailbox every month. And, for that matter, \u201cmy\u201d Mickey Mouse was the guy in that title\u2019s adaptations of the Floyd Gottfredson daily strips. I had no idea at the time that those Comics and Stories<\/em> back-ups weren\u2019t original to the comic book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your mileage may vary in these and other cases, of course. Keep in mind that a fresh take on fictional characters will probably either fascinate or offend their original admirers. And the fresh take will also be compared to and contrasted with the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Is this the time to confess that \u201cmy\u201d Tarzan is the one in the Dell series? Which was scripted by Gaylord DuBois and drawn by Jesse Marsh, who were told to base the character on the Lex Barker movies? Yeah, I thought not. Never mind.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maggie\u2019s World by Maggie Thompson appears the first Tuesday of every month here on<\/em> Toucan!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Maggie Thompson<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n