Jab’s Builds! (Whomp 'Em! Plumbers Don't Wear Ties! ToeJam & Earl!)

[Ken]

Still hoping for Jab to do the pre- and post Crisis versions of Amalak.

[Ares]

Myx feeling like he has some kind of special relationship with Superman is just . . . creepy. It reminds me of the way the Joker was portrayed in the Lego Batman movie and everyone thought it was a funny portrayal of dysfunctional relationships and that the point of it was Batman having to realize how important the Joker was to him as part of his general "learning not to keep people at arms length" life lesson of the film. And no. Just NO. That's messed up as heck. I don't care if it's a silly kids movie meant to entertain kids and to be a wink at the parents to say "You see what we're doing here", that whole scenario is toxic as Hell.

Lets ignore that comics / cartoon Joker is about two things: corrupting people (especially the incorruptible, hence his obsession with Batman) and putting on a show that makes him the center of attention, along with whatever side benefits he can get. Let's go strictly off the movies logic of "Joker feels he and Batman have a special relationship and he wants Batman to acknowledge it", and everything the Joker does is to force Batman to admit to their relationship. Am I the only one that sees very creepy "nice guy in air quotes" vibes from this? The kind of toxic person (guy or girl) who feels entitled to a relationship with someone and will do anything to get them to admit to it? The kind of people who will stalk the subject of their "affection", do terrible things to make the other person "realize how much they're meant to be together", etc.

Basically, Lego Joker gives off the same vibes to Batman as regular Joker gives to Harley, and in the same way the Suicide Squad movie played it up as a quirky, hilarious and sweet relationship, Lego Batman is treated as being the one who needs to accept how important the Joker is to him instead of folks respecting his boundaries. It's literally "Hey, that person stalking / abusing you? You're wrong for keeping them at arms length and need to let them into your life".

Myx gives off a similar, but different energy. Myx is not Superman's friend. He's not Superman's pal. He doesn't see what they're doing as any kind of healthy game where both parties are having fun. Myx is a bully. He's the embodiment of the "It's just a prank, bro" mindset where he gets to torment someone who can't defend himself and his only redeeming feature is that, in addition to whatever magical laws prevents him from hurting people, he's "only" out to humiliate, annoy and frustrate Superman rather than outright harm him. He's a gadfly. He gets off on other people's frustration. He delights in causing problems and he's certainly not "letting" Superman beat him.

If Superman had some way to permanently banish Myx to the 5th dimension, he'd do it in a heartbeat. If Myx was imprisoned somewhere and Clark knew that he was being treated humanely, he'd leave him there. If Myx was legitimately in trouble, then of course Superman would come to his rescue, because he's Superman. But he does not consider Myx a friend or some challenge to look forward to. Myx is that unpleasant family member that you hope doesn't show up to family gatherings, but does and proceeds to make everyone uncomfortable or annoyed with tasteless jokes, airing old family laundry, and picking on people with less authority than him because "It's just a joke".

There's this really, REALLY messed up trend in some writers where they identify with the bad guy and either rush them through a redemption arc or act like they don't need a redemption arc because they're fine the way they are. The kind of people who treat Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy as some kind of lesbian power couple instead of a pair of monsters who just happen to both be bisexual and attractive. The kind of people who treat Adora and Catra's relationship in the Netflix She-Ra show as anything but intensely toxic and abusive.

Myx is a fun character. He's useful for fun stories where a powerful bully messes with his favorite punching bag and gets constantly proven to not be as smart as he likes to think he is. But he's not sympathetic, and trying to make him so is kind of messed up.

[Ares]

As for Mongul, I will forever defend the guy as being something vital the DCU needs, and calling him a Thanos knockoff does a disservice to the main villain of "For the Man Who Has Everything". Mongul was breath of fresh air in the 70s, a powerful tyrant who could actually fight Superman in a fair fight and have a solid chance of winning. A legitimately cruel, evil space conqueror with his own Death Star and endless capacity for cruelty. He was Ming the Merciless with the raw physical power to fight the most powerful heroes in DC and potentially win.

Is he particularly deep? No, he's a guy who wants power and control over people and will often use ancient alien weapons to do so. Is he as big a threat as Darkseid? Not usually, as while Mongul can occasionally threaten the universe, Darkseid is a larger threat by nature of his quest for the Anti-Life Equation and having a planet of literal gods at his command. In fact, Mongul lacks the motivation Darkseid and Thanos do. Darkseid wants to put the universe under his control because he believes everything will be orderly and perfect under his command. When everything is Darkseid, there will finally be perfection and peace. Thanos does what he does out of a love for Mistress Death and for his own amusement, as well as his own possessiveness over the universe. Mongul, by contrast, is a cruel bully who enjoys hurting others, holding power over them and enjoys lording his power over people.

But that's what makes Mongul perfect. He's the guy you have DC heroes beat on to keep Darkseid from becoming a jobber. Mongul shows up in some bid for power, a hero gets to face him, fight him, battle him to a standstill or win a narrow victory, and then Mongul is either briefly imprisoned or escapes to threaten the heroes another time. He's perfect for high end fights against a galactic menace without breaking out Darksied again for the 18th time this year. DC needs to diversify their cosmic scene with more villains like Mongul, Starbreaker, Maaldor, Brainiac, General Zod, Sinestro, Despero, Starro and Kanjar Ro to avoid overusing Darkseid. In the same way Lex being the defacto Superman villain cheapened all of the other bad guys, Darkseid constantly being the go to cosmic threat overexposes him and cheapens other villains.

[Batgirl III]

Lego!Joker and this “new” motivation of Myx are also straight-up ripoffs of Bat-Mite’s motivation of wanting to help his good friend Batman.

[Ares]

Lego!Joker and this “new” motivation of Myx are also straight-up ripoffs of Bat-Mite’s motivation of wanting to help his good friend Batman.

Bat-Mite was sort of a Superboy Prime-type fan expy, in that both are immature, incredibly powerful childlike beings who love heroes, but the difference in decade and their creators result in the two being handled very differently.

Bat-Mite is a playful jab at fans who want to be just like their heroes, dress up in ill fitting costumes, wants to see their heroes succeed so they make things more challenging and want to help, even if their help just creates more problems. It's the fan as an overeager child whose enthusiasm is appreciated even if their interference isn't. And to Bat-Mite's credit, when he understands he's done wrong he'll try to make amends and give the heroes some space.

Superboy Prime meanwhile was done in the 2000's by people (specifically Dan DiDio) who have an adversarial relationship with the fans and view them as whiney, entitled morons, so they made Superboy Prime a whiney, entitled moron while injecting their own mean-spirited nature into him.

Bat-Mite is a friendly shoulder punch followed by a pat on the back and "I know you mean well kid, and we appreciate you even when you annoy us".

Superboy Prime is burning things the fans care about to the ground because you know better than them, and while they're looking at the ashes of what they once loved, looking them in the eyes and saying, "I hate you. I have no respect for you, and you deserve every second of this".

[Ken]

I'd like to see Superman fight Maxwell Jensen or Rudy Jones at either the Eiffel Tower and/or the Louvre and/or the Arc de Triomphe.

It would be a Paris-Site story.

[Ken]

As for Mongul, I will forever defend the guy as being something vital the DCU needs, and calling him a Thanos knockoff does a disservice to the main villain of "For the Man Who Has Everything". Mongul was breath of fresh air in the 70s, a powerful tyrant who could actually fight Superman in a fair fight and have a solid chance of winning. A legitimately cruel, evil space conqueror with his own Death Star and endless capacity for cruelty. He was Ming the Merciless with the raw physical power to fight the most powerful heroes in DC and potentially win.

Is he particularly deep? No, he's a guy who wants power and control over people and will often use ancient alien weapons to do so. Is he as big a threat as Darkseid? Not usually, as while Mongul can occasionally threaten the universe, Darkseid is a larger threat by nature of his quest for the Anti-Life Equation and having a planet of literal gods at his command. In fact, Mongul lacks the motivation Darkseid and Thanos do. Darkseid wants to put the universe under his control because he believes everything will be orderly and perfect under his command. When everything is Darkseid, there will finally be perfection and peace. Thanos does what he does out of a love for Mistress Death and for his own amusement, as well as his own possessiveness over the universe. Mongul, by contrast, is a cruel bully who enjoys hurting others, holding power over them and enjoys lording his power over people.

But that's what makes Mongul perfect. He's the guy you have DC heroes beat on to keep Darkseid from becoming a jobber. Mongul shows up in some bid for power, a hero gets to face him, fight him, battle him to a standstill or win a narrow victory, and then Mongul is either briefly imprisoned or escapes to threaten the heroes another time. He's perfect for high end fights against a galactic menace without breaking out Darksied again for the 18th time this year. DC needs to diversify their cosmic scene with more villains like Mongul, Starbreaker, Maaldor, Brainiac, General Zod, Sinestro, Despero, Starro and Kanjar Ro to avoid overusing Darkseid. In the same way Lex being the defacto Superman villain cheapened all of the other bad guys, Darkseid constantly being the go to cosmic threat overexposes him and cheapens other villains.

I think it's funny that Jim Starlin, creator of Thanos, also created Mongul. I sometimes wonder if Darkseid was editorially off-limits when Starlin came to DC, and if that, in turn, is why he created Mongul. At the time, DC was using Darkseid sparingly (after The New Gods vol. 1 ended w/#19 in 1978, he wasn't seen for another 2 years (JLA #183-5) and then there was "The Great Darkness Saga" in Legion of Super-Heroes in 1982.) It wasn't until Jack Kirby came back to DC in 1984 (when DC was launching the "Super Powers" toy line) that Darkseid started seeing ubiquitously. And it was Kirby himself who seemed to nerf Darkseid in the Super Powers tie-in comics. Darkseid being the heavy on the last two years of "Super Friends/Super Powers" didn't help. It increased Darkseid's recognition among non-comic fans, but at a cost.

[catsi563]

See Mxy to me is one of those interesting dichotomies of the trickster archetype. When I play a trickster type i play them as chaos with a point to make. usually a lesson of some sort even if that lesson is learn to kick back and have a laugh at yourself on occasion

Myx i agree with Ares is the opposite of that and what my tricksters fight against chaos with no point other than to be a PITA a bully who doesnt even get the fact that hes a bully and keeps bullying becuse he can and with even less rhyme or reason behind it, hes similar to ones like Clarion the witch child and the like, Ive chosen you to randonly screw with and theres a grand total of nothing you can do about it

[Ken]

I liked how in the final issue of "The Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite" (Superman vol. 2 #50) it said that Mxyzptlk *IS* also the Impossible Man in the Fantastic Four's universe.

[Jabroniville]

Man did Jeph Loeb write this or something?

PARASITE III (Alex Allston)
Created By: Greg Rucka, Matthew Clark & Andrew Lanning
First Appearance: The Adventures of Superman #633 (Dec. 2004)
Role: Power Thief

PARASITE IV (Alexandra Allston)
Created By: Greg Rucka, Matthew Clark & Andrew Lanning
First Appearance: The Adventures of Superman #633 (Dec. 2004)
Role: Power Thief

-A male & female Parasite debuted after the death of Parasite II- the green Alex and purple Andrea were siblings who were mutated by the villain Ruin (Emil Hamilton, having gone insane), and decided to punish anyone who had "made their lives difficult". They were quickly subdued by Superman, and shortly afterwards Alex was killed by an OMAC. Alexandra survived, joining the Secret Society of Super-Villains as the sole Parasite, but the second one quickly returned and she was ignored. This version has appeared in Superman & Lois, however.

[Jabroniville]

THE FUTUREMEN
Created By: Wayne Boring & Bill Finger
First Appearance: Sueprman #128 (April 1959)
Role: Evil Future Crooks

-Oh man, this is so "Silver Age"- I love it. Hailing from the impossibly-distant future year of "2000", this pair of spaceship-flying dudes claim to be lawmen in search of Superman, who is secretly a criminal named "Shark" from their own timeline. Superman escapes them and gives a tell-all about his life and entrusts it to Perry White should he actually be arrested and taken to the future. Superman's powers are destabilized with Red Kryptonite, making him appear to be a menace, then his powers are nullified for two hours. He is captured and taken to the future, but it's discovered that it's the FUTUREMEN who are the criminals, and they demand that Superman hold one of Saturn's moons hostage, as its water supply is necessary for the survival of Earth. They hold the Earth of 1959 hostage, promising to use an atomic weapon to give it the same drought that 2000 has, but Superman uses his X-Ray Vision to blast a passing asteroid into smashing his Red Kryptonite cage. He easily defeats the Futuremen and gives them to the future Earth authorities, then replenishes Earth's water supply by dragging the moon over to Earth. Superman returns to Earth with a certificate of his innocense from the future, thus clearing his name, then destroys the tape before Perry & Lois can listen to it.

[Skavenger]

What I'm about to say is based entirely on logic, research, and is in no way biased.

Any time someone tries to come up with a list of the greatest comic book characters of all time, if they don't include Jimmy Olsen on that list, you're free to ignore them because they clearly don't know what they're talking about. (For the record, the others are Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, and Jughead)

Jimmy Olsen is, quite simply, a character who can only exist in a comic book medium, and he embodies that medium better than almost any other character. While his red hair, green jacket, and red bowtie might be familiar to anybody who read classic Captain Marvel stories and remembers a certain talking tiger (funny how so much stuff Otto Binder brought to DC can be traced back, hmm?), Jimmy Olsen was one of the peak wish-fulfilment characters, probably secondary only to the Big Red Cheese himself. He was the original Mary Sue, a guy so awesome that despite being a teenager with no parents (until you learn later how badass his father is in 1969) he has a great job, his own fan club, and he gets to be Superman's best friend. Not Batman, not Wonder Woman, not the Legion, not Bibbo, or Lana, or Pete, but JIMMY OLSEN. A kid just like you.

And yes, there's been talk about "well, why wouldn't a kid want to be Batman or Superman instead of Robin or Jimmy Olsen?" Well, for one thing, I don't think most kids are all that willing to have their parents die in order to have those powers. Also, there's the adult responsibilities involved. You can't just goof off and have fun while a giant kryptonite ape is running loose or murder clowns are gassing the citizens, but if you're the superhero's best friend, you get all the benefits of their powers in that they'll be used to help you do awesome stuff, without the need to actually be a grown-up.

Plus, there's the fact that everybody appreciates being recognized by an authority figure whether it's a boss, a teacher, or a parent, and when it comes to authority figures, there's few as "authoritative" as Superman. Before anybody objects to my word usage, I don't mean he's a dictator or overlord or anything, it's that when it comes to powers and being a moral compass, there's few who compare to him, so having this all-powerful embodiment of good clap you on the shoulder and say "good job" and "you did great" must be an emotional high that few other things that amount to.

So there's being the ultimate audience expy (almost), but there's more about Jimmy Olsen. He's also insanely adaptable. Jimmy got up to a LOT in the 60s, including bringing down the Nazis from within, being Marco Polo, having the aforementioned fan club, going to outer space, and getting powers regularly enough to get skilled with them, but only having them long enough to have a brief adventure before regularly responsibility kicked in. And I think that adaptability comes from the fact that, as I said before, he could only exist in a superhero universe. Superman didn't need a superhero universe to exist, because quite frankly, before Superman there wasn't a superhero universe. Batman and Robin have their roots in the old pulp comics. Jimmy's a normal person who was deposited into a fully realized setting with rules and expectations well outside of our own, and we get to see how he not only survives, but thrives in there in a way we hope we would. The only way it could be more on the point would be if Jimmy had been a normal guy in our world who got hit by a truck and woke up to find himself in the DC Universe.

But there's so much more. Take for example the infamous signal watch that let him summon Superman at a moment's notice. Anybody who knows Lex Luthor knows that there's been a strong argument that the mere existence of Superman stunts humanity, because we don't have to strive to do better in a world where an all-powerful being can just fix anything. Jimmy's the perfect counterpoint to that, because he has the ability to summon Superman to fix any problem he faces, but regularly skips that option because he, and by proxy, us, knows that if he did that, it would be a boring story. Jimmy regularly pushes himself to achieve new things and reach new levels of his own capabilities simply because Superman inspires him to do his best to solve problems until it becomes something that only Superman can solve. Sure, sometimes it doesn't pan out, but you can't fault him for trying.

Also, there's been a case made that you can determine the exact break between the Silver Age and the Bronze Age to Jimmy Olsen #133, when Jack Kirby takes over the book and Jimmy becomes essentially a supporting cast member in his own book behind the Newsboy Legion, Darkseid, the New Gods, the Hairies, the Weirdies, Transilvane, and the duplicate of Don Rickels, Goody Rickels. There was no going back to the Silver Age for Jimmy Olsen at that point, and indeed, it wound up turning Jimmy Olsen into the perfect snapshot of the Silver Age as a whole. Everything that happened with Jimmy Olsen happened across DC as it struggled to catch up to Marvel in the 70s, with O'Neil, Adams, Englehart and Rogers reshaping Batman, Superman's entire narrative structure was rebuilt under O'Neil and Bates, and the Justice League's adventures got bigger and more threatening under Conway, Dillin and Perez.

Which isn't to say that there isn't a chance for Jimmy Olsen to still be relevant now. After all, he still exists in a world where radiation and lightning bolts turn people into quipping heroes instead of giving people cancer and third degree burns. DC just needs to remember you can still have that kind of silliness and that it won't dilute all the "mature" storytelling they're so determined to have right now.

[Ken]

... and that it won't dilute all the "mature" storytelling they're so determined to have right now.

Because nothing says "mature" like funny costumes and super powers.

Interesting, well said, and hard to refute.

[Batgirl III]

The fundament of a superhero is the guy in tights saving innocent people from bad things. It's amazing how infrequently that seems to happen in superhero comics these days.

Frank Miller, of all people, summed up my feelings towards the superhero genre best. I appreciate a well-written deconstruction, a well-timed subverted expectation, an intricately plotted twist ending, and all the rest of the ways a skillful creator can play with the genre… But, gosh dang it, I just like my superhero stories to be about fun people in fun costumes having fun adventures and occasionally punching a fun badguy in their funny face. Funny sound effect optional.

Jimmy Olsen is an iconic part of the “superheroes are fun” paradigm.

[Skavenger]

Myx feeling like he has some kind of special relationship with Superman is just . . . creepy. It reminds me of the way the Joker was portrayed in the Lego Batman movie and everyone thought it was a funny portrayal of dysfunctional relationships and that the point of it was Batman having to realize how important the Joker was to him as part of his general "learning not to keep people at arms length" life lesson of the film. And no. Just NO. That's messed up as heck. I don't care if it's a silly kids movie meant to entertain kids and to be a wink at the parents to say "You see what we're doing here", that whole scenario is toxic as Hell.

Lets ignore that comics / cartoon Joker is about two things: corrupting people (especially the incorruptible, hence his obsession with Batman) and putting on a show that makes him the center of attention, along with whatever side benefits he can get. Let's go strictly off the movies logic of "Joker feels he and Batman have a special relationship and he wants Batman to acknowledge it", and everything the Joker does is to force Batman to admit to their relationship. Am I the only one that sees very creepy "nice guy in air quotes" vibes from this? The kind of toxic person (guy or girl) who feels entitled to a relationship with someone and will do anything to get them to admit to it? The kind of people who will stalk the subject of their "affection", do terrible things to make the other person "realize how much they're meant to be together", etc.

Basically, Lego Joker gives off the same vibes to Batman as regular Joker gives to Harley, and in the same way the Suicide Squad movie played it up as a quirky, hilarious and sweet relationship, Lego Batman is treated as being the one who needs to accept how important the Joker is to him instead of folks respecting his boundaries. It's literally "Hey, that person stalking / abusing you? You're wrong for keeping them at arms length and need to let them into your life".

Myx gives off a similar, but different energy. Myx is not Superman's friend. He's not Superman's pal. He doesn't see what they're doing as any kind of healthy game where both parties are having fun. Myx is a bully. He's the embodiment of the "It's just a prank, bro" mindset where he gets to torment someone who can't defend himself and his only redeeming feature is that, in addition to whatever magical laws prevents him from hurting people, he's "only" out to humiliate, annoy and frustrate Superman rather than outright harm him. He's a gadfly. He gets off on other people's frustration. He delights in causing problems and he's certainly not "letting" Superman beat him.

If Superman had some way to permanently banish Myx to the 5th dimension, he'd do it in a heartbeat. If Myx was imprisoned somewhere and Clark knew that he was being treated humanely, he'd leave him there. If Myx was legitimately in trouble, then of course Superman would come to his rescue, because he's Superman. But he does not consider Myx a friend or some challenge to look forward to. Myx is that unpleasant family member that you hope doesn't show up to family gatherings, but does and proceeds to make everyone uncomfortable or annoyed with tasteless jokes, airing old family laundry, and picking on people with less authority than him because "It's just a joke".

There's this really, REALLY messed up trend in some writers where they identify with the bad guy and either rush them through a redemption arc or act like they don't need a redemption arc because they're fine the way they are. The kind of people who treat Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy as some kind of lesbian power couple instead of a pair of monsters who just happen to both be bisexual and attractive. The kind of people who treat Adora and Catra's relationship in the Netflix She-Ra show as anything but intensely toxic and abusive.

Myx is a fun character. He's useful for fun stories where a powerful bully messes with his favorite punching bag and gets constantly proven to not be as smart as he likes to think he is. But he's not sympathetic, and trying to make him so is kind of messed up.

Oh, I'm not disagreeing that it's not creepy. From the beginning the idea that this being would just show up and focus his attentions on Superman is worrisome. Lex Luthor at least had sound human (if impractical) logic behind his fixation. But I think that as the characters grew and Superman came to realize that Mxy wasn't outright malicious (I can't remember, did Mxy ever actually *kill* anybody or just cause situations that created danger?) and was more of a pest, the relationship changed. Mxy seemed to like that Superman could keep up with him, and I remember at least one storyline where Superman seemed to view Mxy as more of an impulsive child than anything else.