other side, from outside, is standing the re- Superheroes and Supervillans who have searcher who attempts to investigate their powers that normal people can’t have. Hands in Comic language and create its structure 3. In 1981, in Earth 616 appears a fictional In a parallel line of that of the native and group of supervillains under the name The and Cinema the researcher lies the investigation around Hand. A group of mystical evil ninjas that by Efi Giannopoulou our hands. We use our hands without think- were invented and designed by the writer ing about their anatomy or their move- and designer Frank Miller for the first vol- We take advantage of the space of intro- ments, believing that work and movement ume of the collection of Daredevil5. duction to speak about the duality “ from according to the demands of our brain. The origins of the hand it revealed to us within and from outside” that seems crucial However, the study of the hand requires later, in 2004, by the artists Akira Yoshida in the process of a research related to the the abandonment of the site of the native and Christian Gossett in the limited edition role of hands in our world. The term world it and the conquest of the researchers space. comic Electra, The Hand. According to the is not used only for the environment of the Requires the exit of our everyday life and story, in Japan in 1588 a child, Kagenobu physical bodies, but for any poetic place the achievement of the necessary distance Yoshioka, kills a foreign man who wanted that we inhabit; auditory, literary, cinemat- in order to observe them from outside and to murder his mother. When Kagenobu ographic. investigate its role as if they were not ours, grows up he wants to protect Japan from like the language isn’t for the researcher. the foreigns and found the group of ninjas World is what one can imagine of what it is The Hand. outside of him. 1 ... almost every superhero He chooses the name Hand for his villains group because as he says the hand con- Philosophy indicates that in the exploration with hands of strange powers centrates and lies all the human strength. and production of the various worlds that uses his hands as a weapon. Also as he can compare the forces of every we can be, there are two “modes” of placing finger with the forces of the five islands of ourselves in relation with them; from within In this article it has been chosen to speak Japan: and from outside. 2 about hands through the hands that live Being inside a world means to get involved in the world of the comics and movies. The The hand has five fingers, each of which can in the story that unfolds in it. Doing with- interesting thing about hands is that their exist independently of others. Not unlike the out thinking about why and how things are creators, influenced by the hand of every- five islands that form Japan. However, when done. Conversely, when we stop, step away day life, recreates hands of another every- the five fingers of the hand come together for and observe it from outside, the world be- day life, of another context. a single, unified purpose ... the hand becomes comes an object and the distance we take an object of unwavering power! 6 from it permits us to name it world. The hand in Earth 616 This positional polarity can be understood The Earth 616 is a world in the Marvel Uni- The hand of the mind better through Wittgenstein’s metaphor of verse4 in which the reality is the same with The Hand has survived into the early 21st the native and the researcher. As he says ours: same countries, same story, same century and frequently fought with famous the native speaks his language without any politicians and same historical events. How- superheroes like Spider-man, X-Men, Wol- written rule and without thinking how and ever, in Earth 616 there are more than 616 verine among others. why he speaks; use it from inside. On the countries and in between the humans live Wolverine7, a character who appeared in Daredevil, Electra and XMEN, transforms his and outline its direction. They move it with- out through two categories. The first one, hands into a weapon changing their shape out touching it but the hand is responsible the more fantastic, are movies that offer and their anatomy. Wolverine’s creator is in- for the movement of the object because all space to hands that are independent enti- spired by the shape of the hand, of its emp- the forces are going through it. ties, separated of the rest of the body. The ty and full parts, add three hidden fingers- Outside of the comics, in cinema, Tim Bur- second, more realistic, are stories or movies knifes that come out when its necessary. ton influenced by the advance of technol- that the hand is still connected to the body Without a doubt almost every superhero ogy created Edward Scissor-hands, a child but has its own strange attitude and always with hands of strange powers uses his born with hands of scissors. The change of hands as a weapon. In our reality, as of our daily life by technology provoked Tim Between all the movies them, the hand is a weapon more than any Burton to think about the difference of our that have been noticed so other part of the body because its anatomy lives if possible to have a part of our body and place in the body gives it the capacity as scissors. In his fiction history, Tim Burton far stands a common fear. to touch, hug and kill. chooses the hands for that part of the body, Obviously, in Marvel Universe as well as in probably thinking that quotidianity passes The thought that the hand DC Universe8, the villains and the heroes through our hands. use the strength of their hands like the way The movie presents the difficulties and the sometimes can not hear we use them. Their hands are accompanied difference of actions that we never give an by the same verbs of ours. Pull, move, write, importance like eat, write, drink, wash, etc. our brain and is almost ca- crash, catch, shape, touch and more but in a probably change of the anatomy of our pable, literally and meta- the difference is in the results that they can hands. achieve. Perhaps, the movie, more than everything, phorically, even to kill us. accentuates the act of touching,loving and ...what is important mainly killing. As has been mentioned the place of surprises the rest of the body or the mind. the hand in the body and his shape gives For the first type of fiction, the reason of the in the Thing of Adams Fam- it the privilege to kill and hug; love. Obvi- creation of the independent hands is that ily is that we can understand ously, with scissor-hands, the act of love or the shape of the hand can easily be com- hug can be the murder of the one we love pared with the shape of a spider, and seen its feeling, its mood, without by our touch. so, the hand can walk. Putting that together with its domination in the variety of actions seeing a face or a person. The mind of the hand that the rest of the body can do, gives it the Apart from the importance of the anatomy possibility to be an autonomous entity, at It must be noted though that in the world of of our hands, the feeling of non-coherence least, in fiction. the superheroes, actions that we can only between the hand and brain, that perhaps In 1946, appeared the first independent do through our hands, they can do without many of us have experienced, it’s the sub- hand under the title The Beast with five using their hands. For example, they can ject that many designers and directors have fingers. A pianist dies but his hand is still move objects by their minds and without used to create fantastic and fictional narra- alive and only wants the ring stolen from its touching them. However, when they need tives. fingers. The story of an astronaut that died more power their hands indicate the object The representation of that feeling comes and his hand returned to earth to find those responsible for the death of his body is the his hands move and act as it were not his a common fear. The thought that the hand scenery of the movie The Crawling Hand and are capable to kill him. sometimes can not hear our brain and is al- presented in 1963. In the short film The Hand, of 2008, ap- most capable, literally and metaphorically, The most famous movie in this category pear another case of hands that can’t be even to kill us. are Oliver Stone’s The Hand in 1981. Oliver controlled by the mind of their owner. This vision around the hands, that offered Stone successfully and with the great per- This movie, like in Edward Scissor-hands, us this research, became possible, as it formance by Michael Caine incite terror and involves the technology and science, with was said in the prologue of the article, by present the story of a cartoonist who loses the transplantation of the hands. Apart of observing the hand from outside, like the his hand in a car accident. The hand be- the fact of the transplantation, that opens researcher observers the languages of the comes a murderer who kills without stop- another discuss about our everyday life, it natives in the metaphor of Wittgenstein. ping. must been mentioned the dialogue be- However, this output, this vision from out- We could not leave out of this category of tween the two protagonists that describes side, make sense only if we are capable to films The Thing from the Adams family. The very well the polarity hand-mind. exploit it by using naturally our hands or Thing is primarily a person in the form of a The girl who tries to convince the others better, if we can let us be used by our hands hand who does all the actions that hands that everything that she does is done by in order to discover and create new poetics do, the more usual quotidian as, open the her hands and not by her and his lover who worlds. door, hold the cigar, clean, wash, change tries to explain to her that everything is on NOTES channels in Adams TV set and so on. But her mind, invented by her mind. 1. Seguí de la Riva,Javier. Dibujar, Proyectar XVIII, Desde dentro y desde fuera, del todo a la parte (2), Cuadernos what is important mainly in the Thing of del Instituto Juan de Herrera de la Escuela de Arquitec- Adams Family is that we can understand -Everything is in your mind tura de Madrid, Madrid, 2009, p. 10 its feeling, its mood, without seeing a face -’No. Everything is in my hands.10 2. Ibid. p.20 or a person. The movements of the Thing 3. Wittgenstein, L. Filosofía, Secciones 86-93 del Big Typ- erscrip, KRK, Oviedo, 2007, p.96 perfectly revealsl its thoughts and senti- Both in our creative processes as in our dai- 4. Marvel Universe was founded by the company Mar- ments because the gestures of the hands is ly activity many authors refers to the do- vel Comics Publishing Inc. in 1939 capable to externalize the feelings without main of the hand or the mind. Perhaps for 5. Daredevil #174, Sept . 1981 Marvel Comics Group. the need of the face. Jacques Derrida, “everything is in our hands”. Web. 12 June 2012 http://marvel.com/comic_books/ issue/8156/daredevil_1963_174 6. Elektra The Hand # 2, (Nov. 2004 - Feb. 2005) Marvel The manual gestuality is essentially expres- The hand thinks before being thought; it is Comics Group. Edición Española, L9D, La Novena Dime- sive and capable to achieve nuances of great thought, a thought, thinking.11 sion, 2010. p.17 subtlety, sometimes “regardless of” who 7. Wolverine (James Howlett). Marvel Universe Wiki. 9 Web. 12 June 2012 http://marvel.com/universe/ moves them. Epilogue Wolverine_%28James_Howlett%29 The existence of comics and movies where 8. DC Comics Editions. Web. 12 June 2012. http://www. By the end we leave the stories of hands the hands appear with supernaturals pow- dccomics.com/ that keep their place in the body but the ers, or like independent entities or like un- 9. Schinca, Marta. Expresión corporal. Técnica y expre- sión del movimiento. Wolters Kluwer, Madrid 2010, p.30 mind experiences the inability to control controllable parts of our body, indicates 10. Dialogue from the movie The Hand. Directed by them. In Idle Hands, in 1999, a young boy the concern about the ability of the hand Drew Baldwin, Atom TV, 2008. lose the control of his hands while them act to control body and mind. Between all the 11. Derrida, Jacques, Deconstruction and Philosophy, by themselves. Terrified asks for help while movies that have been noticed so far stands Texts of Jacques Derrida, Geschlecht II, Heidegger´s Hand, The University of Chicago Press, page 171 Bibliography: 1990. Odeon, 2000. DVD - Derrida, Jacques, Deconstruction and - Idle Hands. Dir. Rodman Flender, Colum- Philosophy, Texts of Jacques Derrida, Ge- bia Pictures Corporation, Licht/Mueller schlecht II, Heidegger´s Hand, The Univer- Film Corporation Team Todd, 1999. Sony sity of Chicago Press, Pictures, 2000. DVD - Seguí de la Riva,Javier. Dibujar Proyectar - The Beast with five fingers. Dir. Robert XVIII, Desde dentro y desde fuera, del todo Florey, Warner Bros. Picture, 1947. IMDb: a la parte (2), Cuadernos del Instituto Juan The Internet Movie Database. Web. 12 de Herrera de la Escuela de June 2012. http://www.imdb.com/title/ Arquitectura de Madrid, Madrid, tt0038338/ 2009 - The Crawling Hand. Dir. Herbert L.Strock. - Schinca, Marta. Expresión corporal. Téc- Joseph F. Robertson Productions,1963. nica y expresión del movimiento. Wolters Rhino Home Video,2001.DVD Kluwer, Madrid, 2010 - The Hand. Directed by Drew - Wittgenstein, L. Filosofía, Secciones 86-93 Baldwin, Atom TV, 2008. del Big Typerscrip, KRK, Oviedo, 2007 Metacafe. The Video Entertainment - Wittgenstein L., Los cuadernos azul y mar- Engine. Web. 12 June 2012 ron, Editorial Tecnos, Madrid, 2007 http://www.metacafe.com/ watch/1946985/the_hand/ Comics: - The Hand. Dir. Oliver Stone. Orion Pictures - Frank Miller (w), Frank Miller, Klaus Corporation, Warner Bros. Picture,1981. Janson (p), Klaus Janson (i)] Twisted Terror Collection, 2007. DVD Daredevil #174, Sept . 1981 Marvel Comics Group. Internet: - Akira Yoshida(w),Christian - Daredevil #174, Sept . 1981.Marvel Gosset(p), Jonathan Glapion(i)] Comics Group. Web. 12 June 2012 http:// Elektra The Hand # 2, (Nov. 2004 - marvel.com/comic_books/issue/8156/ Feb. 2005) Marvel Comics daredevil_1963_174 Group. Edición Española, L9D, La - DC Comics Editions. Novena Dimesion, 2010. Web. 12 June 2012. http://www.dccomics.com/ Filmography: - Marvel Comics Group - Adams family Values. Dir. Barry Son- Web. 12 June 2012. nenfeld. Orion Pictures Corporation, http://marvel.com/ Paramount Pictures. 1993. Wide Screen - Wolverine (James Howlett). Marvel Uni- Collections, 2001.DVD verse Wiki. Web. 12 June 2012 - Edward Scissorhands. Dir. Tim Burton, http://marvel.com/universe/ Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Wolverine_%28James_Howlett%29