Expert: Chris Brown - 9/6/2009

Question
Hi Chris, I have a few comic book related questions, but first a little context.

I’m an aspiring screenwriter currently embarking on a new project and whilst ordinarily I’d avoid the whole Superhero-based-movie arena, I feel I have a killer concept. The problem is I’m okay with post 90’s comic-dom, but not so hot on older stuff. The silver and golden age type stuff.

On that note to my questions :)

1. What are the worst/most obscure Origin stories ever? Bitten by radioactive spiders? Zapped by lightning? Given a super-serum? This includes supervillains too.

2. What are the best examples of villains who are a by-product of the hero? In other words which supervillains were created by something the hero did?

3. What are the best example of diametrically opposing foes? In other words Submariner (man of water) battles The Human Torch (man of fire). Any better ones? The more obscure the better.

4. What are your favorite examples of odd in-jokes, ironies, inconsistencies in comic books? As a for instance, Captain America, Blond haired and blue-eyed, the peak of physical perfection, fights the Nazis to prevent them creating a Aryan race of....errr...blonde haired, blue-eyed peaks of physical perfection. Spiders don’t shoot webs from their wrists. It’s closer to their An*s and would make for a considerably different Spidey. Any others?   

Bare in mind I’m trying to lean towards the kind of characters non-comic book fans might recognize (since it’s aimed at movie-goers in general). That said I’d be interested in anything that fits.

Thanking you in advance. I appreciate your help.

regards

Alex


Answer
Hi Alex

Sorry you sent me this question as I'm deep into getting ready for my wife's 40th birthday party, so I haven't been keeping up well with my email account.

First, I'll have to say that while I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about superheroes, I may not be able to provide the level of probity you are looking for.  My forte is actually more nonsuperhero genres.  Still, I am going to give these questions a few days thought and see what I come up with.

You may also want to go onto Yahoo groups, where there are several comic-related groups of people with intimate knowledge of superheroes.  The best for your purpose might be SAGA, standing for Silver Age, Golden Age.  If you can get that group interested, I'm sure the people would be able to provide no end of answers to your questions.

Initial thoughts:

1. It seems that all superhero origins are pretty silly if you sit down and think about them.  The whole radioactive spider bite giving spider powers stands out, as you suggest.  Falling into or being sprayed with chemicals is pretty popular but not that exciting (Joker, Two-face, Sandman (Marvel supervillain, not the DC character), the Flash, G.A. Plastic Man I believe if memory serves all fall into this category.  Or developing a potion would include others like Antman.  Then there's the whole exposure to various types of rays, e.g. the Hulk, Fantastic Four, Captain Atom.  The S.A. Green Lantern myth seems pretty wild: some kind of intergalactic guardian race appointing heroes on different planets to serve as local champions.  Likewise, the characters that represent lost races (e.g. Mole Man, Tyrannus), or who exist in sub-atomic worlds  (Annihilus, I think?--I would need to look this one up; the Micronauts).

2. Really I can't think of anyone offhand, although this would seem like a natural enough thing to happen.  I guess Batman/Two-Face, at least as it happened in the movie.  I'm not sure I've read or at least don't remember Two-Face's origin in the comic version.  Superboy/Bizarro would probably fit here, as Bizarro wanted to be or be like Superboy but couldn't quite make it work.  If you stretched a little more, you could even include Superman/Myxlprk (probably spelled wrong) and Batman/Bat-mite.  I'm not really sure if, in the original story, it was Superman's fault that Lex Luthor became a bad guy.  Spiderman seemed in some ways responsible for his friend Harry Osbourne becoming Green Goblin after his father the original Green Goblin died.


3. There was at least one other fire/water tandem, but I can't think of their names offhand.  I'm not at home where I can access my reference materials.  Green Lantern had that ridiculous thing where he was powerless against anything yellow so of course half his villaiins were yellow.  Probably when the Fantastic Four fought the X-men they had the Human Torch fighting Iceman, just so you could have fire and ice.  Ant-man became Giant-man, whose girl-friend was the Wasp.  Not sure what large or small foes he fought though.

4. This one would take some thought.  Sounds like the movie could be Tarantinoesque/Kevin Smithish.

Let me know if the above comments are helpful and along the lines of what you are looking for.

Chris