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Welcome back to the Answer of the Week audio blog, where Matt and I give our answers to the THN Question of the Week…now featuring YOUR audio and written answers!
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This week’s question: What superhero would you like to see switch universes?
One of the differences I see between the DC and Marvel universes is that Marvel heroes of low and middle power levels (Spider-man, Cap, Luke Cage) can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the high powered heroes (Thor, the Hulk), and be just as effective during an adventure.
Conversely, low and middle power level DC heroes (Black Canary, Starman, Wildcat) are usually relegated to the background when sharing an adventure with the high powered heroes (Superman, Green Lantern, the Flash). To be shown at their best the lower powered DC heroes have to be in their own book, or share a book with other similar heroes (like the ‘Birds of Prey’, or the great Green Arrow/Question team-ups in the early nineties), and this seem to go against the DC ‘shared universe at all costs’ mentality.
To me, it seems that, try as they might, there are actually two separate DC universes: the superheroic universe, and the simply heroic one; or, the one where Lady Shiva is a threat and the one where she isn’t. The obvious exception is Batman, who works in both types of story, but even then he is renaissance man in one and simply ‘the smart one’ in the other.
My pick for changing universes would be to take the great — but criminally under-used — low-powered DC characters, and put them into the Marvel universe where they can thrive. And my example is the pre-crisis Ragman! Really!
This character is great, and pure silver-aged Marvel. Rory Regan, recently demobbed from Vietnam, returns home to his father’s shabby old junk yard, a neighbourhood institution in a bad, bad part of town (originally Gotham, now New York; perhaps Brooklyn?). Old Mr Regan is a man with a colourful background: he was a roustabout and repairman in a circus for many years. Now Rory’s back. He’s done his bit for his country and he has nothing to show for it; no money, no respect. I figure he’s bitter, perhaps angry, to be back with a father who spends his days dealing with the destitute, making a pittance, and reminiscing with his old circus buddies. Then the events that lead to the creation of the Ragman occur, and, through a freak of chance, Regan gains “the agility of a world class acrobat, the strength of a circus strongman and the fighting ability of a heavy weight prize fighter” — great silver-age abilities. Perhaps I’d add “the wiles of a professional escape artist”. And he’s already a trained soldier!
Thus you’ve got the beginning of a typical Marvel hero. Regan is angry and guilt-ridden, and his Ragman is taciturn, brooding, and fiercely protective of his shabby Jewish/Italian neighbourhood. Sometimes his adventures involve desperate people just trying to get by, rather than supervillians and criminal masterminds, and resolutions often come with him showing compassion rather than dishing out by-the-book justice. He rarely concerns himself with anything that occurs outside the neighbourhood — no cosmic stuff, please — but he is a perfect fit for teams-ups with Spidey, Cage and Iron Fist, or Daredevil.
Yes, he’s still Jewish, but that cursed cloak of evil souls is GONE.
Amazing response, Tom! I’d read that book…