Superman's "Mopee" Tales

[Permanus]

To this Hall of Shame I would add Pasko's "Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis" (http://nightwing.supermanfan.net/oddities/mesmerizer1.htm) with its "revelation" that Clark Kent's glasses make him look like John Chancellor (never mentioned again, thank Rao).

And, though it's nearly off-topic, there's that World's Finest 223 tale where we "learn" Bruce Wayne had an older brother, Thomas Wayne, Jr.

The brother with the brain damage in a car accident that was shoved into some crazy house? I always hate how much that made the Waynes look callous.

My God, this felt like an exercise in a college comics writing course:

Create a story that is as much of a deliberate reversal of a hero's origin as possible. Bonus points if it involves Deadman.[/list]

The Thomas Wayne, Jr. business was made even worse by the fact that Deadman decided to inhabit his body permanently. What the hell, he's only a retard, right? It's not like he's a human being or anything. Then he sort of managed to place Thomas in mortal danger and get him killed. Batman was pretty choked up about it for about five minutes.

[Permanus]

>>
Everybody knows that Marty Pasko story, "The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis!" that has Superman use his glasses to magnify his hypnotic ability, which is why the Clark Kent disguise is so effective. It also has Superman hypnotize AN ENTIRE CITY, a feat he's thankfully never duplicated.
<<

I remember this one... wonder what the letter column responses about this one were like (or for these other "Mopee" stories, for that matter :-) ).

As I recall, the lettercol responses to this one were pretty good, not least because the story had actually been suggested by a letterhack - perhaps Beppe Sabbatini or even Al Schroeder III (of this parish). Frankly, I still don't exactly hate the story. It does make sense, in a weird sort of way.

[JulianPerez]

Say, does unfinished continued stories count as Mopees? Then how about Metamorpho being wanted for the murder of Saphire Stagg's husband and going on the run with Element Girl Urana Blackwell in the final issue of Metamorpho? Or the Metal Men being made into, essentially, androids in the last five issues of Metal Men, only to reappear as robots when they refurfaced in Brave and the Bold?

If I remember right, there were explanations given during the Steve Gerber run for why the Metal Men lost their "human" identities that were given later on (and for why Professor Magnus returned to normal), so it isn't a "Mopee" story if it's explained away; only if it is just never mentioned again.

While DC loves top make huge deals out of re-cons and restarts these days to boost sales, back in the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages it seem to happen all the time!

Lots of good ones:

The 1st Krptonite ever seen in the comics was colored Red, not Green! This version of Red K was re-Con into Green K, later another completely different Red K appeared which we all know and love.

Originally, The people of Krypton were called Krptonites! Later this was re-con by renaming them Kryptonians.

Superboy was never part of the mainstream continuity until many years after his comic was released, it wasn't until well into the 1960's that Superman's origin finally included him, thus making him official.

Speaking of Superboy, his comics re-con countless things, mostly people meeting a lot sooner than what was written in the Superman comics.

Some of Superman's powers was re-con in and out of continuity depending on the story.

Sandman saga anyone?

The list is endless..

I don't think you're entirely clear on what a "Mopee" story is. A "Mopee" story is a tale that promises to make an extraordinary, earth-shattering revalation that totally recontextualizes something really important about a character, a revalation that is never, ever brought up afterward because everybody agrees never to mention it again: e.g. that the Flash's speed comes from a magical little elf, or Batman had a brother.

A few bumps and glitches in a character, particularly at the beginning (Daredevil using gadgets in his mask, Professor X admitting in a thought bubble that he "loves" Jean Grey, Superman using telepathy, the Fantastic Four living in a fictional city instead of the Big Apple, Batman using a gun, Dr. Don Blake building an android) are just that: bumps and glitches, more common back in the day when only guys like Roy Thomas and E. Nelson Bridwell were keeping track of these things.

(Also, it should be noted that "retcon," as Roy Thomas originally defined it, had a much more specific meaning than how it is used today.)

[Lee Semmens]

Possibly the worst atrocity Bob Haney committed - and he committed quite a few in my opinion (I don't know if you would call it a "Mopee", Julian, but I would) - was in a Batman team-up story in The Brave and the Bold, where he actually had Catwoman murder someone.

Now, it was definitely established in a number of earlier Catwoman appearances that she would never kill anyone, under any circumstances, and I thought this was extremely out of character.

As far as I know she never killed again.

Bob Haney and editor Murray Boltinoff seemed to think that they could use (or abuse) other editors' characters as they liked.

For instance, no explanation is ever given why Dr. Fate and Wildcat, of Earth-2, occasionally teamed up with Batman.

[Super Monkey]

I don't think you're entirely clear on what a "Mopee" story is. A "Mopee" story is a tale that promises to make an extraordinary, earth-shattering revalation that totally recontextualizes something really important about a character, a revalation that is never, ever brought up afterward because everybody agrees never to mention it again: e.g. that the Flash's speed comes from a magical little elf, or Batman had a brother.

Oh I see, so only the Sandman Saga would count on my list?

[dto]

Possibly the worst atrocity Bob Haney committed - and he committed quite a few in my opinion (I don't know if you would call it a "Mopee", Julian, but I would) - was in a Batman team-up story in The Brave and the Bold, where he actually had Catwoman murder someone.

Now, it was definitely established in a number of earlier Catwoman appearances that she would never kill anyone, under any circumstances, and I thought this was extremely out of character.

As far as I know she never killed again.

Bob Haney and editor Murray Boltinoff seemed to think that they could use (or abuse) other editors' characters as they liked.

For instance, no explanation is ever given why Dr. Fate and Wildcat, of Earth-2, occasionally teamed up with Batman.

That's not a "Mopee"; it's an "Earth-B" story:


Earth-B
Keyword(s): The Brave and the Bold
Classification: Alternate Earth
Key Events
First Appearance: uncertain
Notable Appearance: The Brave and the Bold #131, circa 1973
Probable Appearance: DC Challenge! #1-12, 1985-1986
This Earth is a resting ground for stories that contradict known fact. "Fact" in this case mostly means "editorial decree". For example, the above issue of The Brave and the Bold has Catwoman committing murder, which the "official" Catwomen of Earths 1 and 2 would never do. The continuity-shattering and extremely silly maxiseries DC Challenge! probably took place on Earth-B. This earth is named "B" because most of the stories relegated to it were either edited by Murray Boltinoff, written by Bob Haney or E. Nelson Bridwell, or appeared in The Brave and the Bold.

(From http://www.io.com/~woodward/chroma/atminor.html )


So if "DC Challenge!" was Earth-B's version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, then it might still exist, along with Kara and Barry!     Even if it means a murderous Catwoman, I'll take Earth-B for the present one any day.   :wink:

[Super Monkey]

I thought Earth-B was for

Holy BEEP I can't belive they printed that!
and
What the BEEP was that?

 :wink:

[DoctorZero]

I think the closest they came to explaining away the Metal Men's "human" ID's was their first B & B appearance after their last Metal Men issue.  Gold is found masquerading as a human and simply takes off the mask when confronted by Mercury.  Other than that, no real explaination was offered in the Metal Men's own book.

Perhaps a better Mopee story might be the Metal Men-Atom story in B & B, in which Doctor Magnus reveals that his first Metal Man was called Uranium and Doc "killed" him because he was controlable.  This was never mentioned again, even in the Metal Men's own book.  

I suspect that the MM's "the were actually human beings first before becoming robots" story line has been Mopee'd now, judging from the recent 52 issues.  This was the entire problem with the idea that the reason why the Metal Men were thinking robots was because they were human souls in the metal shells.  Doc had previously invented Uranium, the Metal Women, and the Gas Gang.  Plus, I think, Plutonium Man in their revival series.  Getting rid of the idea that the Metal Men were humans prior is probably one of the best things DC did with Infinite Crisis.