JulianPerez
09-21-2006, 05:49 AM
For some villians, there is definitely this sense that they are profoundly creepy/unsavory/violent/whatever and that we didn't really see that because they were "sanitized" for the audience.
Who are the Tony Sopranos and Crispin Glovers of classic comics? Who have unpleasant personal hygiene?
Strangely, there are more characters of this type at DC than at Marvel. Maybe the reason is that with Marvel, much more of characters' inner lives and personalities are on display so it isn't left to our imaginations. The Sandman for instance, is one bad dude: he's a scary convict, but because he has such a developed personality we know there are some things he won't do, and his nasty character traits are balanced out by more redeeming qualities like a desire to improve himself (his first story, Sandman goes to a High School to force a principal to give him a diploma).
I'm just saying this for fun and speculation; I think we're all better off not knowing the intimate details about the Puppet Master's psyche.
The Persuader
He works for the mob, and has a violent, thuggish personality. He loves brutality; he once commanded Cosmic Boy after beating him senseless, to "Crawl, punk! Do you hear me?" The Persuader's constant arguing with Mano suggest a desire to control others through power, and a kind of swaggering machismo. His disturbing letching after the teenaged Princess Projectra with "I like you, little one" was very horrifying, for her, and the reader. There are suggestions, very subtle ones in his first appearance in ADVENTURE COMICS #352 (1967) that he's a cop-killer.
Doctor Psycho
He's a freakish little weirdo with psychological issues related to women, who uses a machine to become one occasionally. Though they didn't want to gross us out, there's a definite sense to Doctor Psycho's visual look, that he doesn't have very good personal hygiene, either. I bet anything that Doctor Psycho's Internet Explorer bookmarks could give PortalofEvil.com featured links for the next ten years.
Faora Hu-Ul
She killed twelve men on Krypton. Clearly she has a cultivated killer instinct, and she enjoys seeing powerful men brought low and humbled, with a pathological hatred of them and a desire for control. There's no doubt in my mind she's been sanitized for readers; people complain about the violence in the 1982 Steve Gerber PHANTOM ZONE miniseries, but if anything, it was totally mild compared to what ought to have happened; Faora would make Kid Miracleman look like a piker.
The Puppet Master
Just because someone has powers that coincide with an unusual fetish doesn't mean the villain has that fetish. The Watcher is not a voyeur; he's too remote and alien to have a label like that make sense. The Gray Gargoyle doesn't have a statue fetish; he's just evil and greedy. But the Puppet Master on the other hand...okay, though his main motivations are wealth, power and revenge, PM's visual look is very creepy and it's not a stretch at all to say that he may enjoy controlling people for unwholesome, fetishistic reasons.
The Absorbing Man
Actually, I don't think he's any more unsavory than how he's been presented at all; he rejoyces in his powers and in bossing others around, but he beats people like Thor up to show how tough he is and so he can brag, rather than because he enjoys brutality. Note his cry of triumph at vanquishing Thor in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #121 (1966) for instance. He strikes me as being a villain version of Hawkeye: somebody that likes what they do very much, who gets into fights for the love of fighting.
Who are the Tony Sopranos and Crispin Glovers of classic comics? Who have unpleasant personal hygiene?
Strangely, there are more characters of this type at DC than at Marvel. Maybe the reason is that with Marvel, much more of characters' inner lives and personalities are on display so it isn't left to our imaginations. The Sandman for instance, is one bad dude: he's a scary convict, but because he has such a developed personality we know there are some things he won't do, and his nasty character traits are balanced out by more redeeming qualities like a desire to improve himself (his first story, Sandman goes to a High School to force a principal to give him a diploma).
I'm just saying this for fun and speculation; I think we're all better off not knowing the intimate details about the Puppet Master's psyche.
The Persuader
He works for the mob, and has a violent, thuggish personality. He loves brutality; he once commanded Cosmic Boy after beating him senseless, to "Crawl, punk! Do you hear me?" The Persuader's constant arguing with Mano suggest a desire to control others through power, and a kind of swaggering machismo. His disturbing letching after the teenaged Princess Projectra with "I like you, little one" was very horrifying, for her, and the reader. There are suggestions, very subtle ones in his first appearance in ADVENTURE COMICS #352 (1967) that he's a cop-killer.
Doctor Psycho
He's a freakish little weirdo with psychological issues related to women, who uses a machine to become one occasionally. Though they didn't want to gross us out, there's a definite sense to Doctor Psycho's visual look, that he doesn't have very good personal hygiene, either. I bet anything that Doctor Psycho's Internet Explorer bookmarks could give PortalofEvil.com featured links for the next ten years.
Faora Hu-Ul
She killed twelve men on Krypton. Clearly she has a cultivated killer instinct, and she enjoys seeing powerful men brought low and humbled, with a pathological hatred of them and a desire for control. There's no doubt in my mind she's been sanitized for readers; people complain about the violence in the 1982 Steve Gerber PHANTOM ZONE miniseries, but if anything, it was totally mild compared to what ought to have happened; Faora would make Kid Miracleman look like a piker.
The Puppet Master
Just because someone has powers that coincide with an unusual fetish doesn't mean the villain has that fetish. The Watcher is not a voyeur; he's too remote and alien to have a label like that make sense. The Gray Gargoyle doesn't have a statue fetish; he's just evil and greedy. But the Puppet Master on the other hand...okay, though his main motivations are wealth, power and revenge, PM's visual look is very creepy and it's not a stretch at all to say that he may enjoy controlling people for unwholesome, fetishistic reasons.
The Absorbing Man
Actually, I don't think he's any more unsavory than how he's been presented at all; he rejoyces in his powers and in bossing others around, but he beats people like Thor up to show how tough he is and so he can brag, rather than because he enjoys brutality. Note his cry of triumph at vanquishing Thor in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #121 (1966) for instance. He strikes me as being a villain version of Hawkeye: somebody that likes what they do very much, who gets into fights for the love of fighting.