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| Dan Slott's Thing |
| Dan Slott's "The Thing" is a wonderful series. I love issue four, starring Lockjaw! Let's dive right in... |
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Stan and Jack did him different The first thing to notice is that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did him different. This is not a criticism - we cannot live in the past. Times change. But it is worth mentioning. If you look at all the Lockjaw stories from the 1960s, and even those until the 1980, the Inhumans always treat Lockjaw with great respect. (Humans treat him badly, but that's another story.) This has all changed. The new story starts with the Inhumans treating Lockjaw in an insulting way. Medusa says "Bad dog! How dare you disturb Lord Black Bolt while he is attending to affairs of state!" and she whips him with her hair. She never spoke or behaved like that in the early days, but a lot can happen in forty years. If this is typical of all modern Lockjaw stories (and I confess that I have missed a few stories since the 1980s) then I can see why modern readers assume that Lockjaw is "just a dog." But I encourage readers to look closer, and to give greater weight to the early stories. Or at least to consider other possibilities. |
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Diogenes is alive and well! The more I see of Lockjaw, the more he reminds me of Diogenes the ancient Greek philosopher. It is almost as if the story is playing with us, tossing us clues, then making Lockjaw behave so that we think "surely not! And yet..." There are many parallels between Lockjaw and the Cynic philosophers, and these are dealt with on another page. I urge you to search the web for Diogenes. Look at life from Diogenes' point of view. I am not saying that Lockjaw is Diogenes reincarnated, but simply that Lockjaw acts like a classical "Dog philosopher." In this story he acts particularly like Diogenes. When Diogenes died in 323 BC, his friends did not at first notice, because they thought he was just fooling around. And when he was finally buried, they erected a memorial to him (in the shape of a dog), made of marble. The Thing 4 begins with a marble slab. It is shattered by Karnak and Lockjaw is hurt. Lockjaw goes to each of his friends in turn and they do not notice the wound, they think he is just fooling around. Perhaps the most infamous story of Diogenes is when he was criticized for performing a lone sexual act in public. When he was criticized for doing so, he replied that it was harmless, yet made him feel good. He said, "I wish I could rub my stomach in the same way, and so avoid hunger." (See Theophrastus' "Lives of the Philosophers.") Lockjaw, like Diogenes, acts how he feels, and right then, after Ben had removed the marble shard, Lockjaw loved him! Lockjaw, like Diogenes, simply does not care what others think. It's harmless, it's what he wants to do, so he does it. Most of the time, Lockjaw just hangs around with his friends. He is not a dead weight, he does not hinder them, and sometimes he is of great help to them. But he enjoys the simple things in life. Much like Diogenes. He may be an iconoclast, an enigma and a curmudgeon, but he is happy and at peace - more so than anyone else in the comic. Who has the better philosophy? |
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Lockjaw's intelligence redux The Thing 4 again makes it clear that Lockjaw is intelligent. Ben just tells him to take the kids somewhere safe, and Lockjaw chooses the best place. Try that with any animal, even a chimp (the most intelligent nonhuman animal), and he will fail you. Indeed, if you say to some humans "take my children somewhere safe" they would make a bad decision. But Lockjaw can be trusted to always get it right with the most serious and important decisions - the safety of your most precious children. Would a dog understand detailed abstract instructions involving decisions? Lockjaw does. Would a dog, even a smart dog, know how to disable a battle suit that supplies deadly voltage in every other way? Would YOU know how to disable a live high-voltage battle suit? Would you have the skill to do it with your mouth? (Have you ever had even a mild electric shock in your mouth?) So we see that Lockjaw is more intelligent than some humans, and far, far beyond any animal. We can forget any ideas of "an animal with enhanced intelligence." Would you trust your babies to an animal with enhanced intelligence? Neither would I. |
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Comic elements I can't go any further without paying tribute to Dan Slott's great writing. His story is a pleasure to read. Sometimes the Inhumans act out of character for comic effect, like when they put up "missing dog" posters at the spaceport. It makes absolutely no sense given that Lockjaw has high intelligence, can return home in an instant, could be anywhere in the omniverse and has often disappeared before and always returns. But it's funny! Of course, this is still compatible with the "big secret" idea, and maybe Lockjaw has known favorite haunts, and maybe the royal family were just feeling guilty for treating him badly. Gorgon's attempts to reason with him are also funny. |
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He often does not behave like a dog When a missing dog returns, what do you do? You either smother him with love or you punish him. You don't send a friend to reason with him. Yet that is what the Inhumans do. As noted above, Lockjaw understands and acts on complex instructions. And he can disable a live voltage battle suit. He isn't like any dog, except in appearance and interests. He is more than just a super smart dog. He is something else. Does a dog, that loyal pack animal, that "man's best friend", decide that he likes it best somewhere else and requests a transfer? A cat, maybe. But not a dog. Yet after a lifetime with the Inhumans, Lockjaw decides to leave. This goes totally against canine nature. Lockjaw may share many doggy interests, his body is like the body of a super-powered dog, but his brain is not the brain of a dog. Conclusion Far too quickly, the book is over. And what have we learned? That Lockjaw acts like the ancient Greek dog philosophers. That he has human level intelligence. That he does what he feels like, just like a dog, and does not care what others think. That he saves his friends' lives. That he is a lot of fun. Basically, everything we knew already. And I want more! |
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