Remember when characters had depth?In praise of three dimensional characters |
I was talking to a modern reader of the Fantastic Four the other day. I mentioned how the Mole Man is a sympathetic character who only ever wanted to be loved. My friend said I was imagining all this, because the Mole Man is not a sympathetic character. Well my friend is right - since the 1990s he hasn't been sympathetic. But back in the days of the Marvel Universe he had real depth and poignancy. This is true of almost all major characters: Stan and Jack created characters with depth, but since 1991 all depth has been removed. I'll illustrate this first with the Mole Man (the first person the Fantastic Four ever fought), then with the FF's greatest foe (Doctor Doom), then with the character everyone considers a joke: Paste Pot Pete. Another Lee-Kirby hero who's now considered a joke is Lockjaw, but he has his own pages.
Doom had two great triumphs. First the capture of the Surfer's power Cosmic, and later briefly obtaining the Beyonder's power. But in between there was a story that everyone is supposed to hate as "out of character": the apparent attempted rape of a Latverian girl. Yes it is out of character if we only look at Doom's triumphs or his self image. But if you follow Doom's career from start to finish we see a different story.
"I remember on the old Usenet groups in the days before these more advanced MBs. One poster theorized that Doom starts a slow decline after he absorbs the Power Cosmic and over the course of time it worsens his already fragile mental stability. The Power Cosmic's radiation triggered a change, much like the Cosmic Rays triggered the change in the FF. It gradually exacerbated his mental state, making him increasingly unstable. He had periods of lucidity (FF #116, Astonishing Tale #8, Sub-Mariner #46-49, etc) interspersed throughout that time frame (FF #60-200). It explains the somewhat conflicted, almost heroic Doom along side the over the top Doom, such as the scene were he is laughing madly while forcing two minions to shoot each other while under the influence of the Vibro-bomb.
It peaks with the Wolfman's FF #200
where he goes through a complete mental collapse and shuts down into a
catatonic state. A conflicted Boris helps hatch a plan to awaken him by
using a sort of makeshift electroshock therapy using the power of his
armor. In a rare bit of insight into Boris's feelings, he feels that
Victor would have been better off had he died along with his parents
those years ago. This was during Doug Moench's brief run on the title." - Iron Maiden
Note: the Doombot hypothesis is dismissed further down.
This controversial story is from Super-Villain Team Up. it is widely regarded as the worst Doom Story ever, but seen in the context of his career, perhaps the most important. It is only when we see Doom as he doers not want to be seen that we can understand the truth. This is the the only time we see him admit a genuine error of judgment and character. We see insights into his character that are normally hidden.
"I can't see him actually trying to get into an intimate moment with some random girl...anytime there was a chance of him getting close, he would be reminded of his perceived disfigurement. He got agitated when Alicia touched his face in the Wolfman arc. Much earlier in Astonishing Tales he didn't force himself on the Valeria impersonator that Rudolpho used against him even thought she was in the thrall of some kind of hypnotic machine. He even had an illusion projector of some kind to make him look as he had before the accident. Many years later, Priest wrote a very intriguing tale where yet another Valeria double brings up some painful reminders of the past and the lack of her companionship in his life." - Iron Maiden
What was he thinking??
Note that Doom was at his lowest point, and would never do anything like that again.
In the context of our own laws, this is a clear case of dishonor and rape. Yes it is, but see it from Doom's delusional and medieval point of view. In Doom's mind, he was bestowing a great honor to the girl by allowing her to be his consort. Independent thinkers (as Doom represents) often talk and behave in ways that others find naive and shocking. Only this week I discovered Arthur C Clark's views on pederasty and Anne McCaffrey (Dragon riders)'s views on homosexuality... Ewww...
Steve Englehart's Super Villain Team Up issues are the perfect example of what I call the Big Story approach to comics: they're like the FF 201-231 or 296-303. On their own they look like really lame throw-away out of character issues. But if we trace the history of those characters over the long term those issues are essential and powerful (IMO). Englehart showed Doom at his very lowest point, the inevitable result of what went before (losing direction and focus) and the cause of what came after. It it also helps to remember that Marvel Time compresses this period quite viciously - events we read in 1975 are only two or three years before events in 1986. E.g. if we read of Doom being defeated three times in three years (our time) it's no big deal, but to him it's three major defeats in three months and this is his equivalent of a nervous breakdown.
This page shows Doom at the lowest point in his career. Panel 3 is the realization of his error, and panel 4 is the low point. Yes, this is the infamous page where he decides to have his way with some random village maiden. But note his thinking - because they did not flock to his side with love, that frees him from any duty to treat them with respect. In his twisted way this is all part of his code of honor: "That's the way you want it? Fine."
It's fascinating to see the character development in this series. Doom is at the end of a long downward slide since the high point as beloved in the late 1960s. He is lost, confused, searching for his role. He's frankly pathetic and makes mistake after mistake in these issues.
The interesting thing is that his success parallels his honor. In SVTU his honor is at its lowest and he's a loser. But back at his height, the classic Kirby visit to Latveria, Doom loses (he has to let the FF go) yet still comes out of it looking magnificent, with power and glory oozing out of every pore.
With Byrne in the 1980s, when the FF help him regain his land, his sense of honor is again at its peak. And he does amazing things (climaxing with defeating the Beyonder). Honor and success go together.
In SVTU 7, after his lowest point, what happens? he's defeated and left for dead by the Shroud, a guy who even admits he's a newbie!
But he learns from this. In the years that follow his improves his technology, improves his methods, invests time in his people, and generally increases his self respect. My hope is that the current F is not badly written, but merely reflects Doom at a similar psychological turning point, and hopefully this too will lead to a renaissance.Personally I always like it when Doom is shown to be more realistic - that is, to have weaknesses and inconsistencies. Not that he would ever admit to them of course.
Doom never gets any honest feedback, he sees his potential as unlimited, and he never admits serious mistakes. I see this as a perfect recipe for someone who does stupid, stupid things at times. Like superstars cocooned in their own bubble.
Stage 1. Finding himself: everything up to buying the castle in America (FF 5). He is young, had just added magic to his technology, and was so full of himself as alchemist that he built a medieval castle near New York! In later years he was clearly embarrassed by this immaturity, and didn't return for many years - even though this left the time machine unguarded for the FF to later use. In this period he has a massive chip on his shoulder, trying to prove his superiority, pathetically tried to beat the FF just to show he could.
Stage 2. Developing his identity: everything up to the surfer. Three trends in this period: gradually improving his tech (especially robots), establishing himself as monarch, and deciding that he deserves absolute power.
Stage 3. The mentally ill years: up to to 200. It starts with his moment of greatest nobility (the classic Kirby Latverian adventure), but the warning signs are present even there: It's an entirely fake world he's created, with nowhere to go, no possible direction except the one thing he can never do: settle down. He then spends ten years without focus, forgetting his people, involved in frankly foolish and sometimes pathetic adventures, and ending in his madness. In this period he was frustrated by all the new villains who appeared, and swam aimlessly trying to find his role on a crowded stage. I can quite see him looking like a melodramatic villain here, with nobody to advise him of how stupid he looked. This of course s when he lost Latveria. He was unfocused.
Stage 4. The rise to ultimate power: from regaining his throne to gaining the Beyonder's power.
Stage 5. Kristoff: the final defeat: fittingly, the only one who could defeat Doom is himself. By creating Kristoff he creates an enemy to keep him weak and busy forever. Although Kristoff lacks some of Doom's experience, he also lacks Doom's experience of defeat. Normally defeat makes a man stronger, but Doom, who seldom interprets defeat correctly (in terms of his own errors), it just leads to rashness and judgment-clouding anger. We also don't know how Doom's many experiences may have damaged his brain or body. The younger, calmer Doom sometimes has the edge.
The old Dr Doom was interesting because he was like us. He had weaknesses. But in 1991 (or thereabouts - around FF 350) Walt Simonson introduced a new, shiny Doom who has almost no weaknesses. Like everything Simonson does it was a great story on its own. But like most post 1991 stories it doesn't have any other layers. The old Doom had depth - he made mistakes and got frustrated. The new Doom is one dimensional arrogance. I find modern Doom hard to believe, because with all that power he would have either won, died, or gone onto something else. The old Doom was more believable.
Post 1991 can be called The Doombot years. His abilities have become so great, his Doombots are so advanced, his web of abilities and projects so complex, his disdain for all other being so absolute, his tangle of avatars and time displaced versions so unfathomable, that any kind of stability of consistency becomes impossible. He exists in a state of constant maximum chaos. One day he creates or enslaves worlds, another day he's in prison, another day he gains and voluntarily gives up absolute power, another day he's in ten places at once. A Doom for the ADHD generation.
What happens next? There are two possible results: an end with a bang or a whimper. The logical result is a bang - one of Doom's crazy schemes would go so badly wrong that all possibility of Doom's power will be erased forever (possibly taking all Doom-related realities with them). But this being comics, the whimper ending is more likely. Doom's schemes will never end, his plans will become so commonplace, so irrelevant, so cliche, that he'll fade into obscurity over many years. The image of a bitter old Doom being pushed around in a wheelchair is probably accurate.
The blanket "blame Doombots" approach only works for simpler tasks. IT does not explain the attempted rape, for example. The dogs and long term plans and plan for rape do not fit with the narrow role of a robot, and the Doombots, like Doom, were never as perfect as he claimed. As anyone who knows either engineering or human nature could have predicted.
Talking of weaknesses that he won't admit, remember when Squirrel Girl defeated him? OK, that was 1991, post Marvel Universe, but it's possibly the last time we saw Stan ad Jack's not-as-perfect-as-he-pretends Doom. It may reveal an interesting take on his moral code - he won't hurt animals, won't use full force against a girl, and was completely caught off guard but a situation he never planned for. Has Doom ever hurt an animal? It is possible that his gypsy upbringing gives him special respect for non humans. After all, Doom would see well trained animals as perfect examples of what all humans should be. Except himself of course. Remember the pet tiger he had in his first appearance?
Doom also has an arrogance that will not let him believe that anyone he sees as weak could defeat him. Couple, this with Squirrel Girl's always underrated powers (which are another topic!) and we can see how she defeated him psychologically. The one thing that Doom cannot cope with is silly humiliation.
Have you ever been lonely? Really, truly alone, so that "nobody understands me" and "nobody likes me" are more than just empty whining? The Mole Man is the loneliest character ever created. Hated by everyone, surrounded by millions (probably billions) of loyal followers, but not one of them can engage in intelligent conversation. He has an empire that's bigger than the surface area of the Earth, yet is crushingly alone. Of all the billions who live on the surface, not one has the common decency to treat him like a human being. I think his hatred of the surface world is entirely rational.
In FF 90, Johnny has so sympathy, because he says Ben Grimm had bigger problems. But that isn't true. Ben Grimm never lost his friends. Nobody ever laughed at him. Nobody ever denied him a job because of his looks (indeed, Ben's condition makes him the idol of millions!) Alicia's blindness is worse than the Mole Man's, but what is sight compared to friendship? Alicia has always had friends.
Now it's perfectly true that the Mole Man lacks any social skills. He lacks all but the crudest capacity to love. But is that any surprise? Whenever he tries to love someone they betray and mock him (as happened with Kala, and presumably happened before he fled the surface world). Do we seriously expect a person like that to be open hearted and sociable?
Let us look at the Mole Man's original complaints: He tried to find love, but was mocked instead. He knew he would die alone. He worked to qualify to earn a living, but nobody would hire him. He was already middle aged in 1961, so he grew up in the Great Depression or before. No job means no food. No food and no friends means you die. And in the worst possible way: hated and alone with all your honest effort thrown back in your face.
The surface world attacked and destroyed it. Yet the Mole Man still showed compassion, and accepted the Fantastic Four's explanation and helped them.
Here Ben Grimm befriends the Mole Man - and betrays him. Next to love, what the Mole Man wants is to see the sun again, so he tries again to build an island. (he tried ordinary islands twice before, but each time the Fantastic Four destroyed them.) Unknown to him, the island making machine will trigger earthquakes. But so what? The surface world has never given him a single reason to care.
Final appearance: 313We may see the Mole man as evil - trying to kill everyone on Earth - but his strategy is always to simply unleash our own natural evil, and then he will clean up. he does sometimes try to fit in - before going underground, and after FF annual 13 for example, but the surface world always attacks him.
Even at his worst, even when he threatens the entire world, we should remember just one thing: any one of the billions of humans could have prevented all that destruction, by just treating him as a human being.
No comic character is mocked more than Paste Pot Pete, so I want to stand up for him.
The following is adapted from a debate on comicboards.com
CRITIC: Lee and Kirby created a fair amount of garbage characters, I recently read the stories that introduced Trapster and Wizard and I thought those stories were poorly written and those characters were dull and one dimensional, from day one.
ME: I like the old characters because I find them more rewarding to analyze. And because they were so cheap we could all join in the fun. The corny dialog sounds really strange to modern readers, but it's no less realistic than the heightened cinematic dialog we have now. The corny dialog was only a way to explain and simplify their instant thought processes. Given that both kinds of dialog have to be interpreted, I find the old expository style is more efficient at telling a story. It was established in the comics that what we read was the "real" story as filtered by Stan and Jack (as reporters) who exaggerated it to make it more fun. The technology was less sophisticated and therefore more believable than modern comic tech. And I think foolish villains are more believable than hyper confident villains. Paste Pot Pete is just like a street kid who finds a gun. Somehow he comes into possession of a special gun and he thinks this makes him invincible, so he becomes an idiot show off, and is soon taken down by someone with more experience. One dimensional characters have their place. E.g. Sherlock Holmes was two dimensional and Dr Watson was one dimensional. The original Paste Pot Pete had potential - there were hints of a foreign origin and he had more common sense than the Wizard. It looked like he might learn from his mistakes. But with every story he became a weaker character. By Byrne's run he was established as a joke (he couldn't even invade an empty building without falling over a roller skate).
CRITIC: invading a military base to steal missile plans, which only worked because your average American soldier in the Marvel Universe has the IQ and the reflexes of a rock.
ME: I'm probably biased because I used to work at a military research base (staffed by civilians), and I can imagine someone getting in with enough planning. Pete planned his first campaign in great detail. I also live near a nuclear plant, and it was only a few years ago that they added concrete barriers - until then there was only a flimsy wooden arm blocking the main entrance. I'm guessing that security would be even worse back in 1962.
CRITIC: a glue gun!
ME: His glue gun is a thicker version of Spider-Man's web shooter. Look at Paste Pot Pete's first appearance: The paste expands on contact with air, and escapes with explosive velocity. Just like web fluid. (The splashes on the paste bucket are clearly for show - the actual container is no doubt sealed.) The paste sticks to stuff (obviously), just like web fluid. Spider-Man's web fluid was sometimes used as glue in the early days. The paste is often (mostly?) used as a high strength rope, just like web fluid. The paste dissolves in about an hour or less, just like web fluid. Both web fluid and paste appeared at about the same time in 1962.
CRITIC: Why did Paste Pot Pete never tried to market his glue, like Spidey did ASM 18? Sure Spidey failed to convince them to buy it because it dissolves in an hour
ME: So does Paste-Pot Pete's. For more about superhero technology click here.
CRITIC: Where did he get the glue?
ME: We are not told, but we can guess. Spider-Queen had a crude version of Spider-Man's webbing in 1941. If it dissolved quickly or required great skill to use then it may have appeared useless to other people. Both Paste Pot Pete and Peter Parker were expert chemists. We see Parker in a science lab (when he's bitten) and it's clear that Peter is highly interested in such labs. We are also shown that his early webbing was better than his later stuff, suggesting that he got it from somewhere else.
CRITIC: If we say that Spider-Man and Paste Pot Pete both got their technology from elsewhere then we minimize their accomplishments.
ME: I see it the other way around. To understand and develop alien technology requires great genius. But web shooters are so advanced that for one person to invent it all is effectively impossible. If someone claims the impossible then the story cannot be taken seriously, and that's less impressive.
CRITIC: Plot and characterization is more important to me then how real the science is supposed to be.
ME: That's fine. Most people agree with you. But for me, plot depends on context, so the context has to be believable.
CRITIC: Trapster puts a bad costume and a glue gun and is stupid enough to think he can beat super heroes.
ME: The Torch was easy to beat in the early days - even a bucket of water could stop him. It's clear from the first issue that the glue did have some limited fire protection. so it was a rational decision to confront him.
CRITIC: What made him to decide to become a super villain?
ME: Based on Peter Parker's experience we can assume that he failed to sell his dissolving glue. Based on his statements we can assume that he expected a lot of money from crime. Based on his later statements it seems clear that he wants to prove his self worth. Each of these things - rejection, profit, self esteem, are more than enough to explain his actions IMO.
