Not All Superheroes Were Created Equal

00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page i THE SCIENCE OF SUPERVILLAINS Lois H. Gresh Robert Weinberg John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page ii Copyright © 2005 by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg. All rights reserved Introduction © Chris Claremont. All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. 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For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Gresh, Lois H. The science of supervillains / Lois H. Gresh, Robert Weinberg. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-471-48205-6 (cloth) 1. Comic books, strips, etc. — History and criticism. 2. Villains in literature. 3. Science. I. Weinberg, Robert E. II. Title. PN6714.G75 2004 741.5'09—dc22 2004003018 Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page iii To my father, who gave his love of science fiction to me. And to my mother, with gratitude and deep love for everything. —Lois H. Gresh To Mark W. Powers and Pete Franco, two of the nicest guys ever to work in the comic book field. —Robert Weinberg On the Internet at: www.sff.net/people/lgresh and www.robertweinberg.net 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page iv 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page v Contents Preface vii Introduction 1 by Chris Claremont 1 The Original Dr. Evil: Lex Luthor 7 2 The Villain in the Iron Mask: Dr. Doom 21 3 Computer Supervillain or Village Idiot? Brainiac 28 4 Feathers and Fury: The Vulture 40 5 The Kiss of Death: Poison Ivy 51 6 Groping for Power: Doctor Octopus 61 7 Leapin’ Lizards: The Lizard 71 8 Clothes Make the Man: Venom 80 9 Grodd Almighty: The Evil Super-Gorilla 89 10 A Magnetic Personality: Magneto 99 11 Immortality for Some: Vandal Savage and Apocalypse 114 12 Have Surfboard, Will Travel: The Silver Surfer 125 13 The Case of the Missing Antimatter: Sinestro 134 14 Crisis on Infinite Earths 143 v 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page vi vi CONTENTS 15 Frustration in Five Dimensions: Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite 158 Appendix Comic Writers Tell All 169 Notes 185 Bibliography and Reading List 192 Acknowledgments 204 Index 205 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page vii Preface In the mid-1950s, comic books were going through a major slump. The most popular comics of the early 1950s, those featuring crime, war, and horror stories, had been swept off the newsstands by Senate hearings that tried to link comic books with juvenile delinquency. Though no direct correlation was ever proved, the bad publicity was so damaging that it forced comic publishers to invent a self-censoring code that all but wiped out violence, action, and death from their magazines. Humor and funny animal comics like the Disney brand sold well, but superheroes, long a mainstay of the industry, suffered. DC Comics were kept afloat only by the iconic status of their two stars, Superman and Batman, whose popularity never wavered. Other comic book companies weren’t so fortunate, and one after another, slid into bankruptcy during the 1950s. For a time, it seemed possible that superhero comics, an American mainstay since 1938, might per- ish. But two editors, Julius Schwartz at DC Comics and Stan Lee at Marvel Comics, each in his own way, turned the industry upside down. Superhero comic sales surged in the late 1950s through the early 1970s in what became known as the Silver Age of Comics. DC and Marvel became media giants, and the face of comic book publishing was changed forever. Schwartz, a well-known science fiction fan and literary agent, had been working as an editor for DC since the 1940s. In early 1956, he was given the job of reviving interest in DC superheroes. His vehicle was a new comic, titled Showcase, which featured tryout stories for vii 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page viii viii PREFACE new superheroes. If a character sold well in its Showcase appearances, it was given its own comic. If sales were poor, the character was dropped. The first character to appear in Showcase under Schwartz’s direc- torship was the Flash. The character was a familiar one to Schwartz, who had edited a 1940s version of the hero for several years. This time, as editor of the series from the beginning, Schwartz decided to do things differently. A science fiction fan since the 1930s, Schwartz knew that readers liked stories that seemed authentic—that were based on some element of actual science. Even if the science was twisted, bent, and stretched to the limits, the factual circumstances of the story gave it a much more believable feel. And that, Schwartz felt, was the key to selling superheroes. Thus police-scientist Barry Allen was dosed by a batch of electri- cally charged chemicals during a thunderstorm. His costume was made of recently developed miracle fibers, and every time he did some new and seemingly impossible feat, a footnote to the story noted that “Barry was able to run across water because he never broke the surface tension of the liquid.” Schwartz went so far as to fill the blank spaces in his comic with science clippings and facts. The first issue of the scientific Flash was a success, and Schwartz knew better than to gamble with success. With the introduction of each new Flash villain, an aside or cutaway revealed the scientific secrets behind the villain’s incredible powers. Each time Barry Allen caught crooks using some astonishing scientific trick, Schwartz was sure to make it very clear how the stunt was performed. The real secret of the comic wasn’t the actual science demonstrated but Schwartz’s determination to keep the stories plausible. The adven- tures might not be scientifically accurate, but they seemed to make sense. And that was what mattered. The publishing theory of the day was that if a formula worked once, it would work a dozen times. It’s still considered true today. Following the Flash in Showcase Comics were the Challengers of the Unknown, Lois Lane, Green Lantern, the Atom, the Justice League of America, and many others, all with their own quasi-scientific back- 00 gresh fm i-xii, 1-6 8/13/04 1:54 PM Page ix PREFACE ix grounds and all but a few earning their own comic books. It was the Schwartz formula of superheroes based on science that revolution- ized DC Comics in the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, at much smaller Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, another longtime veteran of the comic business, was told by his publisher to create a team of superheroes to match the popularity of DC’s newest sensation, the Justice League. Lee invented a group he named the Fan- tastic Four. Soon after, he came up with another superhero comic, the Incredible Hulk. And within a year, he added The Amazing Spider-Man to the Marvel roster. However, Lee didn’t follow Schwartz’s model of making his heroes scientifically plausible. Instead, he tried another idea new to comics. He made them into soap operas. Marvel’s success was based on the three elements that made soap operas on radio and TV so popular. First and foremost, Lee’s charac- ters, both heroes and villains, had personalities. They were complex individuals with likes and dislikes, good traits and bad.

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