How the Daydreamers Saved the Marvel Universe

No this isn’t about how kids daydreaming about their favourite Superheroes grew up to be the writers of Marvel today (which is most likely true). No this is about the short-lived super team from the 90’s. 

I originally got the idea to write about this team as a movie pitch after seeing Into the Spider-Verse. My thoughts where after seeing that movie other than astonishment as to how good it actually was, the inevitable attempts by another studio to recreate an animated movie based on an eclectically mismatched Superteam was “what team”. I quickly realised which team the short-lived Daydreamers, but looking into them I realised there was a secret hiding behind them all about the structure of Marvel comics at the time. But first WHO are the Daydreamers and HOW in the comics did they join up.

The Daydreamers initially spun out as subplot in Generation-X 20-25, the first 3 members to join together where; Artie Maddocks a mute young mutant with telepathic powers, Leech a former Morlock (a group of Mutants who live in New York sewers) with the power to shut off other superpower and has trouble with pronouns like Elmo from Sesame Street and Franklin Richards the recently orphaned son of Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four. The next recruit was Howard the Duck who was working as a trucker in the Mid-West who gave a lift to Skin and Chamber (members of Gen-X) back to Massachusetts (The Generation-X team where not based at the Xavier Mansion) , after returning the teen-heroes back home (and having a fe bar brawls) the kids introduced Howard to the fifth member of the team. Rigellan Warrior and former Thor villain called Tana Nile hiding on school grounds. Tana Nile is like a female invader Zim who has learnt what empathy is and now an outcast from her species because she doesn’t believe Rigellans are superior to all other forms of life. Lastly joining the team is the mysterious Man-Thing, the guardian of the Nexus of all Reality and the responsible for bringing Howard from Duck-World (although this was a point of contention from the stories original writer and Howard’s original creator Steve Gerber. Who believed Howard came from a world full of different anthropomorphic animals). 

The Day-Dreamers had their own Mini-series although it was short-lived and it’s one weird trip of a story including references to Dr Seuss. But the series was short-lived due to legal issues as Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby’s lawsuit over creator rights was cropping up again as Steve didn’t like them using his character without his permission. Marvel however didn’t know that Gerber and image Comics founder Erik Larsen hatched a plan, Gerber wrote an issue of Spider-man Team up (5 to be precise) where the Web-head would team up with Gerber’s webbed-foot creation and Gambit from The X-men for some reason. Meanwhile over at image comics Gerber and Larsen would create a comic that told the same story but from the perspective of their own characters, Larsen’s Savage Dragon and Gerber (and Jack Kirby’s) Destroyer Duck, but the Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck story as well as having some minor curse words had an extra twist. In the story Creaux the villain of the story does a voodoo ritual that makes copies of the pale-yellow Duck, the Marvel story ends with Spider-man, Gambit and “Howard” having defeated Creaux and Tombstone but the image version has something different. Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck grab the real Howard and his girlfriend Beverly Switzler (no copies of Beverly are needed I guess as there are lots of long-legged redheads in Marvel universe I guess). The heroes of the image Comic now place the most popular write-in candidate during 1977 US Presidential Election and his girlfriend into witness protection in the Savage Dragon universe, renaming Howard Leonard and Beverly changing her name to Rhonda Martini.

So how exactly did this team save Marvel Comics? Well in the 90’s was actually 4 different publishers, “Marvel Spider-man” focusing on all things Spider-man, “Marvel-X” focusing on all mutant related books, “Marvel-Dark” which was Ghost Rider, The Punisher, Daredevil etc and “Marvel Classic” (sounding a lot like a soft-drink) which was The Avengers and Fantastic Four. Marvel Classic was entirely outsourced to Jim Lee’s Wildstorm (which produced Fantastic Four and Iron Man) and Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios (which worked on The Avengers until he missed too many deadlines and Windstorm took it over as well), to coincide with this transfer of character was Onslaught which killed off both teams and then the 2 teams re-emerged in a newer version of the marvel universe called “Heroes Reborn”. But there was more to Marvel Classic than those 2 teams and Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachello decided to take some of the lesser used features and fold them into Generation-X. With this action the Marvel universe became less disconnected which was always the point of Marvel Comics, and while short-lived it did mean Franklin was still around in the Marvel Universe to bring back the classic versions of the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America after the lacklustre response to “Heroes Reborn”.  

Dyspraxia and Doctor Who

In 2007 I was formally diagnosed with Dyspraxia, there was always some suspicion of this but back then learning difficulties weren’t well known. The education system looked at them with bafflement, Dyspraxia is also less well known than others, Autism has become a go to for writers to have a character who is “a bit odd but it’s not their fault” and Dyslexia and Dyscalculia are easily defined as “The Words one” and “the numbers one”. 

Dyspraxia is motor sensory and short term memories, because of this it has taken me longer to learn things than most people, like I didn’t learn to tie my shoelaces until I was 12. There are many other things I’ve yet to learn that most people know like riding a Bicycle.

When I was diagnosed I had failed AS levels, including media studies a subject I was passionate about and which was also helped by Doctor Who. Doctor Who had a companion show called Doctor Who Confidential which was a behind the scenes documentary of how the show was made. I also had the shooting scripts for the first series of the relaunch series, this was great for media studies as very few TV shows let you have a peak behind the curtain. 

After being diagnosed I was put through the now defunct Wynfed Dore programme, which was designed to help people with learning difficulties to cope with them. This was a long process and involved me balancing on a wobbly board and learning basic juggling (before this I couldn’t even catch a ball). I had to do strange exercises everyday (changing every few days), not just that twice a day and I was determined to see this through. 

After I had managed to graduate the programme with a better sense of balance and co-ordination something happened with Doctor Who. We had a new Doctor, a clumsy, Hunchbacked version. Now I had floppy hair covering my face to try and hide the fact to walk around I was looking down at my feet, and so did this new Doctor. To me this Doctor was Dyspraxia. Doctor Who had presented the world with the Pacifist, caring Dyspraxic Superhero. I was sold on this new incarnation, while many disgruntled fans dislike the change from David Tennant to Matt Smith, it didn’t matter to me, this was My Doctor.

The Doctor as well as his apparent coordination issues was clever and funny. He was loved by his friends and he went on great Adventures with his friends the Ponds and later Clara. The show had lost it’s tedious connection to contemporary times which has always baffled me, why would you if you had a time machine that could go to any planet ever go back home. So your parents will do your Laundry? The Tardis surely has a washing machine (I actually know it does because it appears in the Free Comic Book Day comic in the 10th Doctor’s adventure). 

Of course Matt Smith had to leave the role and was replaced by Peter Capaldi, I still loved Doctor Who just not as much. It didn’t help that the character relationship between the Doctor and Clara was made messy. With 11 and Clara there was a romantic tension, the change to the 12th this was dropped sort of. If anything the Doctor had now become Clara’s ex, and not a good one a nightmare one that shows up at 3AM unannounced drunk. This dynamic lasted for a series and after a natural exit for Clara, the character stayed now with this unuttered feeling of Stockholm syndrome. The Toxic relationship fortunately ended and Peter Capaldi’s Doctor got a better companion dynamic with Nardole and Bill Potts. I loved these 2 new companions they where funny and Bill was bubbling over with excitement when she was on the Tardis just like I’d be. This era of course had to end but if anything I was prepared for Doctor Who to change, for the Doctor to change. When it was announced that the new Doctor would be a woman I was excited, they where finally going to address the systemic sexism within the show, being that the show works on the Doctor is brilliant and solves all the problems and the companion finds new ways to get into trouble in history or alien worlds. But then the actual show started again…

Now Jodie Whittaker’s version of the Doctor I have no problem with at all. My biggest problem is that we have the first in canon “Dyspraxic companion”. The character was weirdly summed up by a promotional gif of him giving up and throwing a bike off of a cliff that the Facebook page labelled with “He tries so hard”. 

Ryan’s Dyspraxia is untreated, he has no training about how to function with it but… he functions with it better than I do. I genuinely other than the first Episode can’t think of an example of him having trouble with his coordination or balance and I can’t chalk this up to lack of communication between different writers because 8/11 Episodes where written by Chris Chibnail. So much so I thought his Dyspraxia was dropped from the series, it was almost confirmed up till the episode Ker-Blam where he mentions he “has trouble learning new things”. This Episode also has a one off character who is clumsy and walks with her head down a more obvious Dyspraxic which lead me to question everything about this run. Why have a companion with Dyspraxia if you don’t know what it is and then I realised their intention was revealed in the Rosa Park’s episode (which was co-written by Chibnail) they think learning difficulty means thick. Ryan despite his Grandmother being a huge Civil rights advocate with a T-shirt that says “Spirit of Rosa Parks” and is so outspoken about the subject and time her new Boyfriend and Ryan’s Step-Grandfather is an expert on it and Ryan himself has no idea who Rosa is. Ryan also occasionally freezes up and needs a pep-talk but his Dyspraxia seems intermittent at most (Wikipedia actually says the character's symptons are mild). Ryan is an example of how to let a learning difficulty beat you (in his introductory episode his Grandfather claims he uses his Dyspraxia as an excuse for everything). And that is why I don’t like this new direction of Doctor Who. 

Totally Meta Ninja Toys

Picture the scene, Christmas Eve 1988 and the parents of children all across are searching for the toys their children have been pestering them for. The toy with a name made up of various seemingly un-connected nouns in an order the keep muddling up, was it Mutant Ninja Teenage Turtles. Searching store to store for this toy from the ad with an imitator of Rob Paulsen (rumoured to be Sean Schemel who would later voice Goku in Dragonball Z) riling them into a frenzy.

We all know about this we’ve heard stories about toys being sold out on Christmas Eve, the weird part is… The Ninja Turtles did a story about it 3 years before they released the toys that swept America by storm. To quote the Tales from TMNT series “Let me tell you story…”

Michaelangelo 1, (a One Shot Comic they label as a Micro-Series) is all about this sort of thing. It’s kind of like the movie Jingle All the Way but with a more believable everyman than Arnold Schwarzenegger in it’s main role, a Five foot tall talking Turtle.

The comic opens on a winter scene of ice skaters and sledding and Michelangelo (his name spelt like the Renaissance painter). Michelangelo is thinking of getting presents for his brothers but with just $10 realises that this is a difficult task. He also stumbles across a stray cat that he gives the most logical name that a Turtle trained in Japanese Martial Arts named after the painter of the Sistine chapel could give a cat “Klunk”. Mikey looks into a toy shop where parents are frantically searching for “Little Orphan Aliens” the most adorable toy in the world. So adorable that a gang of hoodlums (one of whom is called Hector) steal a truck full of them that where to be donated to the nearest orphanage in hopes to sell them for a massive profit.

Michelangelo proving he’s the best of the Ninja Turtles, stops them on his own, but in the process ends up stealing them. Of course a truck of stolen toys would get the attention of the police so Michelangelo is now on the run from the cops. And of course him getting caught by the police would cause no end of questions like “What is he?” or “Why would you call a cat Klunk?” (who has spent most of this time stuffed in Mikey’s coat). 

Mikey then stashes the Truck in an alleyway away from the police because the toys would end up impounded and wouldn’t end up with the Orphans who are completely innocent in this whole affair. Michelangelo then returns to April’s apartment to tell her and his brothers about his Christmas Eve. His Brothers and April then dress up as elves and Mikey as Santa Claus to give the children their toys.

Now this story was later adapted into an episode of the 2003 animated series (which for it’s first 2 seasons was mostly adaptations of the original Turtle comics). But this is a blog about comics so I wrote about the comic, also I have the 1990 reprint that has a bonus story… and heres a quick review of a Christmas Carol but starring Raphael, it sucks, it’s as contrived as it sounds. 

Strange facts about Stan Lee

With the recent passing of the most famous comic book writer of all time I thought I’d write a piece about him. But what should I write about a man who has become the comic book industries grandpa. Well how about a list and explanation of some of the bizarrest facts about the man.

He created the Power Rangers (sort of).

I told you these would be weird. In the late 1970’s Stan Lee sold the rights to Spider-man to Toei a Japanese TV studio. The end result of this being a “Super Sentei” series. A Japanese staple of entertainment about a Teenager or a group of Teenagers (some series change the age of the protagonists) who gain transformation powers and battle monsters. 

Stan’s plan after selling the rights to the old web-head to a japanese company was to then splice the action scenes, which where more expensive and dangerous to film and also Japan has a lot more experienced martial arts actors and stunt men, then splice them with new footage of a western actor who would be the series Peter Parker.

Unfortunately this grand scheme of Stan’s was unusable as other than the iconic suit, this series in no way resembles the Spider-man western audiences are used to. It now lives on in infamous as remember the time Spider-man fought aliens from mars with a giant robot.

But as I said this idea would later be used by Saban entertainment to make the Power Rangers (and other short-lived franchises from the 90’s like Big Bad Beetleborgs and VR Troopers). So as I said the idea for Power Ranger’s production cycle was created by Stan Lee.

He Cameo’s in movies because he doesn’t work for Marvel anymore

Ever wonder why he actually crops up in Superhero movies? Well the answer is quite simple, he wrote into his severance contract “if any characters I created are to make a movie I must appear in said movie”. Stan insisted on it, The fact he has appeared in movies of characters he had nothing to with the creation of like Deadpool or the Princess Diaries 2. 

As well as these movie cameo’s Stan is known for doing voice overs in Marvel cartoons, and again there is a simple explanation for this. No one else was available to be the narrator for 1980’s Spider-man series. That said who else could deliver his lines with the same bombastic quality that made Marvel comics so Exciting and exhilarating? Or like they’re written by a sentient Thesaurus?  

But if you where wondering why Stan Lee doesn’t appear in Logan it’s because Stan Lee never wrote a single comic featuring Wolverine.

He grew his Moustache for a reason.

Stan Lee’s Glasses and Moustache combo is unmistakable and iconic. So Iconic in fact my Mum once in HMV once thought a piece of Breaking Bad merchandise was Stan Lee (and to be fair it was amongst a lot of Superhero stuff). But nope despite what you might think Stan Lee was not born with his facial hair and his first words may or may not have been “Excelsior”. Stan Lee in his most famous and prolific time as a writer for Marvel in the 60’s had a full beard this was until a disgruntled Jack Kirby left Marvel for their rival DC and created the Fourth World Saga. Within the Fourth World Saga is a character called “Funky Flashman” a con-Artist deliberately modelled on Stan Lee (subtlety not being something often attributed to Jack Kirby). With this being such an obvious piece of slander Stan had to change his look because it’s harder to con people if they know what you’re like.

Unfortunately him shaving his facial hair down to just a moustache made him look more like Peter Parker’s tyrant boss J. Jonah Jameson.

And one last piece of Stan Lee Fourth World trivia for you, after the first broadcast of Apokolips Now Part 2 (an episode of Superman the animated series), an extra who looked like Stan Lee was removed from the background of Dan Turpin’s funeral scene.

He tried to make the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the 70’s

After semi-retiring from writing comics Stan set his sights on Hollywood and had limited success. He had greater success with television selling the rights to the Incredible Hulk which ran for many seasons and was very successful making a household name for bodybuilder Lou Ferringo (also starring Bill Bixby as The Hulk’s alter ego David Banner). But just having one show was not enough for Stan, green-lit for a whole series was Captain America starring Reb Brown where Steve Rogers is an ex marine who cruises around america in a van solving crimes. A more faithful Spider-man starring one of the kids from the Sound of Music (Nicholas Hammond) which bored viewers into comas and often tops lists of worst TV shows. A pilot for Doctor Strange where psychiatrist Steven Sanders battles peoples magical psychological problems summoned by Morgana Le Fey played by Jessica Walters (best known for either Lucille Bluthe from Arrested Development or Mallory Archer from Archer). And not making to the screen was a version of Daredevil devised by Angie Bowie (ex-wife of David Bowie) that never finished a script for a pilot, but did have costumes made and a photo shoot done for it with herself as then Daredevil sidekick Black Widow. And of course the TV movie the Incredible Hulk returns was a back-door pilot for a Thor series.

All that is nothing compared to Stan’s now notorious Dazzler pitch which was to be set in a post-apocalyptic world with the warring factions of Rock and Roll and Disco, and was to feature Kiss and Donna Summer. It was also to have cameos from Spider-man and the Avengers as well as having then relative unknown stand up comedian Robin Williams playing Alison Blaires (Dazzler’s secret identity) boyfriend.

His Superheroes are a reaction to constrictions on Horror Comics

The publisher now known as Marvel comics didn’t always make nothing but superhero books, both the explosion of superheroes in 1961 they published various genres from Westerns to Romance comics. But what they sold more of was Monster and Horror Comics unfortunately due to the Comics Code Authority there was a ban on all thing occult or too violent so how do you get around this?

Well have a band of explorers get hit by Cosmic rays of course. Then they can fight as many monsters as they like and have an archenemy who dresses up as the Grim Reaper. But it’s not just The Fantastic Four that have roots in Horror in fact most of the heroes debuted in Horror books like “Tales to Astonish” where a man invents a shrinking serum and then must battle what are now giant ants later becoming their king. A man who if he loses control becomes a giant green monster who destroys everything around him or a slender man who likes spiders and skulks around dark alleyways waiting for criminals to tangle up in his web. Not to mention a master of Occult arts who battles other sorcerers and demons and band of misfit freaks who must hide from the world but also want to save it. (if you didn’t work that out that was a description of Antman, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-man, Dr Strange and The X-men).

He Wrote for Publishers other than Marvel.

We associate Stan with Marvel but he did do projects with other companies as well as couple for Marvel nobody talks about like Ravage 2099 or Nightcat an experiment to have a hair metal singer who was also a Superhero. He also created the Adult animated series Striperrella starring Pamela Anderson (which the level of series humour is she’s Agent 69 if you sniggered at that you’ll love the show). 

But Comics wise he created the Mighty 7 for Archie Comics (pre-reboot) which similar to Nightcat tries to merge the barriers between universes by having Stan as an actual character and these are his superhero chums. For Darkhorse he wrote comics for the winners of the reality contest series on the Sci Fi Channel (and a rehashed version in the UK with kids that was broadcast on CBBC) “Who wants to be a Superhero?” which also featured Stan giving the contestants tasks and judging who needs to leave at the end of the episode.

More interestingly is he did do a mini-series for DC called “Just Imagine Stan Lee’s…” where he reimagined DC’s most popular characters; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, The Flash and Green Lantern. Superman reimagined as a hard-nose space cop now stuck on earth, Batman as a pro-wrestler (and a black man) which seems in line with the fact that in the Marvel universe Wrestling is real and often performed by Super-powered beings like The Thing and Spider-man. Green Lantern as a High School Biology teacher who now must protect nature from pollution and Robin as a young street tough who is fostered into a cult by the series villain the Reverend DARRK. 

He started writing comics professionally at 17

Stan’s whole career started at 17 and he was promoted to writer and editor from office boy after most of the staff where drafted into WW2. Stan wasn’t allowed into the Army due to him being underaged as well as in shades of Captain America too skinny and Jewish. But Stan was told his time as editor was temporary and that the owner of the comic publisher would “come back with a grown up” to take the responsibilities off the young kid but he never came back.

And what Stan did with this was truly something great he co-created some of the most well known characters in the world as well as creating an environment where the Artists would flourish under creative freedom. While DC under Bob Kane everyone was made to draw Batman like he did so that he could trace the panels for later use. Stan allowed Jack Kirby draw like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko draw how he wanted. The Marvel method gave a lot of freedom to the artist but was heavily reliant on somebody like Jim Steranko to make a truly dynamic layout that could tell a story well. While modern comic writers are more strict with layouts Steranko at time threw the rulebook completely out the window and did more pop art inspired pieces, pages with no panels, scene melding into scene. Under Stan Lee, Jack Kirby could come into the office with sketches for his new character a naked silver-man from space, that Stan in his own words “thought was a weird idea” but it became a legendary character. Without Stan around Marvel would never have become what it was, and we thank you styrofoam packing peanuts I mean EXCELSIOR!

Those Un-Fantastic Movies

The Fantastic Four haven’t had the most well-regarded of film adaptations, have they? 3 different directors have had a go at making a film version of Marvel’s First Family (Roger Corman, Tim Story and Josh Trank respectively). So this obviously means the adventures of Mr Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing are ‘uncinematic’ or ‘unadaptable’, right? Well, if you keep making the same obvious mistakes over and over again, then yes. I mean sure, the individual films have their own unique problems, like Roger Corman’s incredible shrinking budget and Josh Trank’s refusal to show up to work. But the same 4 (an oddly appropriate number) problems keep on happening.

The FF are Explorers, not Crimefighters

This one’s a real problem. What’s even more strange is that they acknowledge this in their origin “Exploring Space”. But then it’s dropped once they get superpowers. It’s almost as if they went just to pick them up, like a suit from the dry cleaners before a job interview. Most F4 comic book story lines revolve around them exploring somewhere new and making enemies with a tyrant or befriending a friendly king. The number of places in the Marvel Universe that was first explored or discovered by this family from New York include Attilan, Atlantis, the Blue Area of the Moon, Wakanda, Latveria, the Negative Zone, the Skrull Home World. And those are just the greatest hits. 

Removing them as space adventurers robs them of what makes them so special. If theres a mugger in New York, there are at least half a dozen heroes all tripping over each over to stop them (Spider-man, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Shang-Chi, Black Cat, Venom, Jessica Jones, The Prowler and Kirby knows how many more). But the Marvel Universe has only one team of super-powered explorers. 

I think this change is made because movies don’t like what is known as a Flat-Arc (wherein the hero isn’t changed by the story). But this is ridiculous because they can still evolve on an alien planet. 

The Character’s are Wrong

It’s fair to say that the Fantastic Four are a product of their time. While Sue is best defined as the “World’s Greatest Super-Mom” even before having kids (I’m sorry but it’s kinda true), the other three have different personalities to their movie counterparts (even with that said Sue isn’t very Sue). 

Reed Richards is the embodiment of 1950’s Rugged Manhood. He’s not just the smartest man in the world but square-jawed and emotionally distant as well. Reed in the movies is a wimpy nerd who has to bring extra lunch money so he can still get a cookie after the less nerdy nerds beat it out him. These two things are not the same at all and it’s really stereotypical. 

Johnny Storm is, frankly, an immature kid in high school who likes to show off. Sue has spent half her life looking after him after their parents were killed in a car crash when Johnny was 7, partially why Sue is the “World’s Greatest Super-Mom” before she even had her own kids. Johnny in the movies has his “Rebel Without a Cause” side cranked up to 11. But all this does this is create a really shallow version of Johnny Storm, especially as all of the Fantastic Four have above average intelligence (the other three are just dwarfed by Reed Richards). Johnny is more Marty McFly (complete with short temper) than a 2nd rate James Dean. 

The worst offender for the movies getting wrong is most probably Ben Grimm, the heart and soul of Marvel Comics. In the movie adaptations, he spends his time moping about lamenting that he used to be a handsome man but now he’s a giant toenail (fun fact: Ben Grimm’s rock skin is actually more similar to toenails than rock. Here’s hoping he doesn’t get athlete’s foot). While this is true of the comic counterpart to a degree, he actually gets over it pretty quickly. He’s a changed man as soon as he meet Alicia Masters. Ben Grimm is a fun-loving party animal. He loves to drink, gamble and fight. He always has a joke ready for when he punches a bad guy and he’s the Idol of Millions. He’s basically like the Marvel Universe’s Mr. T.

You’re Wrong about Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom first appeared in Fantastic Four number 5 and he was a fully formed character. He had an army of robots, a suit that made him look like the grim reaper’s stunt double, a magic castle, his own made-up kingdom of Latveria and a time machine. He forced three of the members of the F4 to get him some magic pirate treasure. And thats a million times better than what we got in any of the movies. Sure, Doom has a personal vendetta against Reed Richards but it predates him becoming Mr Fantastic. It’s not that Doom is an entitled shmuck who wanted to marry Sue. No. Doom’s hatred of Richards is much more intense and much more personal, Richards destroyed his experiment, his one chance to talk to his deceased mother, and it scarred his beautiful perfect face. 

Doom is no tag-along, Doom’s power is all self made. He didn’t hitch a ride with the other four, he studied the Occult and raised his own army. And all to fulfil his destiny to complete his goals of getting revenge on Reed Richards for disfiguring him, redemption for his mothers soul (she sold it to Mephisto to protect their village from the Nazi’s) and total conquest of the world. Not to destroy it though, rather so he can rid the world of disease and poverty as everybody will be too busy worshipping his magnificence. 

Doctor Doom is almost always the aggressor in his stories with the Fantastic Four, as their insistence on still existing always circumvents his plans to bring much needed order to a world gone mad. But due to his popularity (he was even Stan Lee’s favourite villain), he’s appeared as an adversary for almost every Marvel hero. He’s gone to war with Wakanda and even tried to seduce Spider-man to the ways of villainy. Doom is a complex character as well as being an over-the-top characteur of a fascist. 

There are More Villains than Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom is possibly the greatest villain in all of Superhero comics. However, his back stories and motivations are more complicated than the average disposable movie villain. The method of adding him into the origin of the F4 just plain doesn’t work. It belittles him. Fortunately, the Fantastic Four have many villains. Assuming this is to fit into the MCU, Ronan the Accuser and the Skrull Empire have already been used, but they still have many more that haven’t yet been used. They include evil magician’s like Diablo and Nicolas Scratch, the communist villain the Red Ghost (who gained super powers for him and his apes by copying the F4) and Dragon-Man (often partnered with Diablo) who’s whole shtick is a bizarre lie as he is an Android and neither a Dragon or a Man. The Puppet Master, Alicia Masters step-Father, controls people with puppets he makes. The Moleman is the ruler of an underground world with loyal subjects called the Moloids. The Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android, The Frightful Four (a rival group of Scientists who make themselves an evil copy of the heroes). Annihulus and Blastaar (rival rulers of the Negative Zone who the F4 keep getting in the way of). Heck, even their original villain Namor the Submariner. With him, you can keep the whole “I love Sue, you don’t deserve her” shpeil as that’s actually his motivations.

So is it that the Fantastic Four are uncinematic? god no. The Movie versions have been plagued with problems, Roger Corman was hired to make the first one because of his extremely fast turnover in productions and Constantine films didn’t want to lose the rights to the series so they made a movie of them. Tim Story’s Fantastic Four was made for similar reasons, coupled with the popularity of the Spider-man and X-men movies they thought it could make a profit and it did and it spawned a sequel that some how managed to be worse. Tim Story also only had 1 previous directing credit for a box office flop starring Queen Latifah. Josh Trank’s Fant4stic was also made under the pressure of not wanting to lose the rights to the series. While his vision of a darker version of the F4 seemed strange it had some merits to it, like how Stan Lee’s original pitch for the series had protagonists all slowly dying from their super powers.

The most compelling argument for the Fantastic Four not fitting into a film structure is that the comics often revolve around on going plots from issue to issue. However that idea is flawed by the fact that all Marvel comics have that and well Spider-man has done pretty well on the big screen.

Cerebus Syndrome and The Gorillaz

So what is Cerebus Syndrome, and how do you know if you’ve got it? Well don’t worry it’s a term coined from TV Tropes, not an actual disease. The term was inspired by Aardvark Vanheim’s (Dave Sim’s self publishing name) series Cerebus the Aardvark. Fortunately to understand what it is you don’t have to be overly familiar with the World’s longest continuous narrative (it’s 500 issues of the same story), what it means is something that starts off as something silly or comedic and over the course of it’s story because more serious. As a perfect example of this in every regard I present to the committee the virtual band The Gorillaz.

The Gorillaz were created by Damon Albarn from Blur and Comic Book Artist Jamie Hewlett then best known for co-creating Tank Girl. Albarn’s band Blur had recently broken up and had lost the war of Brit-Pop to their rivals Oasis. The band were on a critical and commercial decline since losing lead Guitarist Graham Coxon and became a more experimental band (the later Blur stuff is almost a prototype for the Gorillaz sound) and while living with Jamie Hewlett whose most famous creation got made into a movie. This movie was not a critical darling either, but this was to be expected. Movies based on comic books were not universally beloved at this point, the world was recovering from Batman and Robin and even worse Steel starring Shaquel O’Neal. Imagine what was needed for a British comic being forced to fit the guidelines of A MOVIE and a PG-13 movie for a general American audience. Sex with her mutated Kangaroo boyfriend who she first met when he tried to steal her underwear would not fly, not to mention stories for Tank Girl are generally short and in Hewlett’s own words on BBC4’s Comic’s Britannia Documentary series “not works of great storytelling, they’re just an excuse to have her blow things up”. He’s not wrong, Tank Girl is at it’s best when it’s short and weird, breaking what it means to be a comic, the movie does try this but to absolutely no success. Instead of feeling in on the joke the whole movie is an incoherent LSD trip with a random musical number and an awesome soundtrack featuring a reworking Girl U Want by Devo and something to do with the badguy hoarding water.  

Albarn and Hewlett first conceived of the idea of a virtual band when watching MTV and both sharing the thought everything is so artificial. Realising the logic conclusion to this was to make a band that didn’t actually exist. Hewlett came up with designs for the band based on what was popular at the time, the band consisted of; Murdoc Niccals on Bass. A Satanist who in his earliest incarnations looks like a Hanna Barbera villain and based on the darker Nu Metal. 2-D or Stu Pott as the Vocalist with dead black eyes and looking like he came from a pop punk band. Russell Hobbs on Drums who looks like the bodyguard to a famous Rapper and was told to look inconspicuous and lastly and certainly not least Noodle a 10 year old Japanese girl inspired by the UK’s Pokemon inspired obsession with all things Otaku and Oriental.

The Band now with Dan the Automator (added in the real world not as a fictional character) released an EP that could almost be a mission statement “Tomorrow Comes Today”. From there the progression was obvious a full album, with more people working on it, including Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz from the Talking Heads, Miho Hitorai (who would share the role of the voice of Noodle on the album with Tina Weymouth) and most notably Del The Funkee Homo Sapien who would get a character for himself and would appear in the music videos for Clint Eastwood and Rock the House. The Album also gave Albarn more freedom than he would’ve had with Blur, as nobody had any real expectations, so with this freedom he mixed genres like indie rock, reggae and hip hop together. As well as sampling George Romero’s Day of the Dead for the song M1 A1.

The Gorillaz first album was overall fun, but what would you expect from a band with a now really cringe-worthy Z on the end of it’s name. The band would next release an album of B-Sides and remixes called “G-Sides”. But with this came the first forming of Gorillaz lore found on their website, and I don’t think anybody other than Jamie Hewlett could’ve come up with this. Highlights from it include Noodles favourite method of transportation being Fed-exing herself to her intended location, Murdoc and 2-D first meeting when Murdoc ran him over, then 2-D being in a coma, Murdoc kidnapped him and then getting into another car crash but this one woke 2-D out of his coma (as well as detaching his retinas and knocking out his front teeth).

Other than Laika Come Home which was a Dub-Reggae remix album (which in fictional universe was explained by 2-D never locked the door to Kong Studios and the Spacemonkeyz got in) was Demon Days. The Album was conceived while Jamie Hewlett was working on trying to get a Gorillaz movie green-lit, by Damon Albarn in china. This time any ideas of artificiality or Bubble Gum where gone, they had to prove they where more than a gimmick. This album was much darker, the kids trying to“get the cool shoe-shine” were now “Kids With Guns”. The Albums most haunting track is probably Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s head, which is almost a bedtime story warning against greed as a mountain god is angry. The Album also boasted a more robust ensemble of musicians, but this time produced by Danger Mouse (not David Jason or Alexander Armstrong) and not Dan the Automator. The mindset behind the telling of “the Gorillaz story” also seemed more important, with the music videos being more steeped in symbolism (Feel Good Inc and El Manna) but as to not alienate more casual fans not all videos told a story.  While Feel Good Inc’s would only set up for El Manna, the story within Feel Good Inc had a deep meaning, I’m sure. Nobody seems quite sure, I personally think of it as being about 2-D being uncomfortable with his fame, while Murdoc and Russell are enjoying the perks that come with it and Noodle is oblivious and still enjoys making music (this being why she is outside of the windmill). El Manna takes place on the flying Windmill as Jimmy Manson (a guy Murdoc said could join the band before Noodle) tries to kill her to take her place in the band. The Video ends with Noodle being missing and this has consequences for the band in the future (even if they never hear from Jimmy again). 

The next album The Plastic Beach, was more focused on the characters and the storytelling. While the set up wasn’t told via music video all of the promotional videos for the album told a continuing story with the exception of Superfast Jellyfish. The story goes; Murdoc now strapped for cash having spent all the money from Demon Days on sex, drugs, around the world cruises etc. realised what he needs to get more money is to produce another album. Having promised to do that and hiring all the talent he could get to help like; Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg and De La Soul who wouldn’t come cheap. But he refused to work with Doom and Dennis Hopper like he did on the last album. He was now broke again, so he got a loan and help from the Demonic Gangster he originally sold his soul to give him a loan and help in locating the other members of the band. The only member he could locate was 2-D, who the pair kidnapped. Murdoc came up with handy solutions as to how he could replace the other 2, for Russell he bought a Drum Machine and as for Noodle ,well, he still had some of her DNA so he made a cyborg clone of her. Now in debt to his record label, all the albums collaborators and a Demonic Gangster, the solution was obvious, rob a bank. This is when the video for Stylo (featuring Mos Def) start our story with the 3 on the run, and I don’t think they’d get very far considering they’re a conspicuous trio of a green skinned satanist, an asian teenager and a blue haired man. In the escape from the cops (well, one cop John McClane from Die Hard) Cyborg Noodle is shot. The next video is On Melancholy Hill which has Murdoc piloting a submarine in an escape while 2-D is in the back trying to fix the broken Cyborg Noodle. The Real Noodle is trying to get to the Plastic beach (a man made structure of discarded plastic floating in the middle of the sea which Murdoc has built their new studio on so he doesn’t have to pay taxes to any government, and they need a new studio after he burned down Kong Studios for the insurance money) and her bumping into bandmate Russell who is now a giant after eating Radioactive Jellyfish. All the while the other collaborators are trying to get to the island to get their payments from Murdoc. The last part to this story is the unfinished Rhinestone Eyes (Hewlett and Albarn had already spent the entire animation budget). This leads to Noodle and Russell reuniting with Murdoc, Murdoc coming face to face with his evil bank manager and 2-D getting eaten by a Whale.

The next release from the band was The Fall which is was recorded by Albarn almost entirely on his iPad. But it has a real problem with it as it’s supposed to be a tour diary for 2-D but he’s supposed to be inside a whale. The other ignored release from the Gorillaz was a promotional tie-in with Converse called Do-Ya-Thing, which has a video that doesn’t fit in with story continuity especially as before the release of Humanz Jamie Hewlett made some instagram posts about the band and what they where doing during the bands 7 year hiatus. Now part of me thinks the hiatus was really so they could unveil the new sexy Noodle, because when Hewlett was asked about it in promotion for his return to Tank Girl and the earlier work being reprinted by image Comics as “he was bored of drawing those characters”. 

Humanz was released and the music videos continued to tell a story for the Gorillaz but… on the album itself it felt if they where absent. Many fans (myself included) where disappointed with this, it didn’t sound like Gorillaz, sure for promotion the band would now do interviews with Phil Cornwell and Kevin Bishop (as Murdoc and 2-D) interacting with the interviewer and in real time being rendered in 3d animation. Helping them to do all the things a real band could do. Advances in technology also allowed for the Gorillaz to do updates about what was going on in their world and each of the members has been known to create their own Spotify playlist.

The displeasure of some fans caused Albarn to try and correct this by recording the album The Now Now (less than a year after the release of the last album) and this time guest collaborators were at a minimum and the inherent sadness that was present on Demon Days and The Plastic Beach was back. They addressed a criticism which is something you don’t do unless you’re dedicated to doing something.

But what does the future hold for the Gorillaz, well another album is (at the time of writing) in the works and this is confirmed and rumours are circling about an animated series. I really hope this is true because this would make the whole storyline of the Gorillaz easier to find and less of an easter egg hunt. I genuinely spent some time trying to work out if there is some sort of code to do with them wearing hats. An animated series for the Gorillaz would also fit nicely with Adult Swim with them ordering 70 episodes of Rick and Morty for it’s 4th Season they’re going to need a companion series for their biggest hit ever, and Warner Bros already owns Adult Swim and the Gorillaz.

The Tick vs The Watchmen

What better way is there to start this brawl than to introduce the contenders, starting with the Tick. Created by Ben Edlund in 1983 as a mascot for a comic book store and then later developed into his own series to pay for his film school tuition, the Tick is a 7 foot tall buffoon who spouts weird catchphrases and nearly non-sensical monologues about good and evil, all of which are things found within your classic superhero comic (who has ever said “for truth, Justice and the American way” without knowingly quoting Superman?). The world of the Tick, also known as “The City”, is filled with absurd comical characters. One example is Die Fledermaus, a cowardly version of Batman who is more into his swinger lifestyle than actual crimefighting. Another more villainous example is Chairface Chippendale, a man who wants to take over the world because his head is a chair. No other reason. He has a chair for a head and somehow can speak, in spite of not possessing a mouth. The Tick and his sidekick Arthur are the City’s greatest heroes, despite one being a complete twit who doesn’t understand, well, anything about modern society, and the other being an insecure mess with no powers other than a flight suit that looks him like a rabbit (although he insists it’s a moth). I could spend the whole article talking about the many different characters from Ben Edlund’s imagination, like Bi-Polar Bear, Dinosaur Neil and American Maid to name a few, and I would absolutely love to but I have to continue to the more depressing contenders in this fight.

In Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1986 magnum opus (as DC is so over-eager to market it as), the Watchmen are a bunch of inept, self obsessed fetishists, each one representing a different ideology prominent in US politics. Rorschach, an Ayn Rand worshipping hypocrite who hasn’t showered in 3 years, spends his time writing unsolicited articles to a Far-Right publication about his various conspiracy theories that he comes up with (in spite of having no proof), including such little “gems” as “drinking in a bar means you like Child Pornography” and “not being Republican means you’re gay”. Dr Manhattan, a god-like entity who sees all of his timeline at once, is impotent when it comes to making any real change. He’s also a nudist as, seeing himself as no more than an observer, there is no real need for him to keep up appearances. Nite-Owl is a social reformer representing the centre-left who has all the gadgets but cannot affect real change, whereas Silk Spectre, representing the centre right, is a self centred woman with massive daddy issues. The Comedian, representing the far right, is a gun toting psychopath who kills for fun and is a dead ringer for Nick Fury (no, not Samuel Jackson). Last but definitely not least is Ozymandias, the worlds smartest man who changes the world by giving up all traditional Superhero methods. He changes the world with Philanthropy and enacts a master diabolical plan to fake an alien invasion as it’s the only thing that would cause lasting peace between America and Russia (remember; this was 1986, when world politics looked like a tangled mess of week old spaghetti).

So why would you compare these two pieces of work? Both are satires of the Superhero genre; one for comedy and the other for tragedy. Oh, unless you’re the kind of person who loves the Zack Snyder movie and doesn’t realise that Watchmen is a satire. In the words of Grant Morrison, Snyder “recreated Watchmen visually but completely missed the subtext”. Although he wrote nicer things about the movie in the chapter of “Supergods” when he was a DC employee, the real point was made there. Watchmen, like a lot of superhero comics, is a response to William Wertham and his book “The Seduction of the Innocent”. Watchmen is exactly how Wertham saw the Superhero; overly violent thugs overwhelmed by their sexual kinks and not good role models for children. As well the portrayal of violence in Watchmen being truly horrific and stomach turning, it eschews the usual superhero comics trope of “they have a fight, triangle wins”. You see an almost sadistic glint of joy in Rorschach’s mask as he doles out punishment or Nite Owl vomiting behind the trash cans at the sight of blood. Unless you only saw the movie of course. Then you can hear idiot frat boy Snyder high-fiving over how knurly that stunt was. Zack Snyder is also an outspoken objectivist (supporter of Ayn Rand) which explains why the film version omits Rorschach’s dubious theories and ignores key descriptions of him, like replacing his emotionless monotone for Jackie Earle Haley’s second rate Nolan Batman imitation. If he changed his role in the world anymore, we’d be hearing lines from all the other characters how much they miss him (as opposed to the ones in the book where they talk about how glad they are he’s not around). But it’s not just within the film where this warped misunderstanding of the book exists. DC released a sequel to Watchmen called “Doomsday Clock”. The most unlikely scenario happens in it; everybody in the world believes the incoherent ramblings of a semi-literate mental patient that he sent to a pro-Nazi magazine that wasn’t even allowed on news stands. The only person of power who would believe this tripe is Alan Fine.

That’s why the Tick is superior. People get right away that it’s a work of satire. On reflection, the Tick might be better viewed as a parody. Parody and Satire are very different from each other; parody loves what it mocks, satire hates what it mocks (thats why you never hear the term political parody). We’ve also never had a wild departure from The Tick’s authorial intent by the simple virtue that Ben Edlund has always been involved with all the Tick’s incarnations. But the Tick-Watchmen connection is more apparent with the Amazon Prime series, not simply because they share actors. SPOILER WARNING! The Terror’s evil plot is mocked by Arthur for being overly convoluted, a plot similar to the one Ozymandias reveals at the end of Watchmen. The Tick was willing to admit that this is overly contrived and made a virtue out of it. No wiggle room, the Tick makes it’s point. Watchmen leaves it vague and Alan Moore’s detachment from the project has left it in the hands of the fanboys. And they do not understand it. The Tick fans do however understand it. They are under no illusions that it’s silly, weird and wholly unashamed of what it is.