It's this caption from Mr.Terrific #1:
Wait a minute. Given that Michael Holt is the third smartest man on Earth, that has to be correct. But if brain transplants aren't possible, that means...
...that the DC Universe has lost this guy!Now, I know what you're saying..."Sure, snell, a genius human brain inside the body of an albino gorilla is cool and all, but what's the big deal?"
Well, here's the big deal. Did you know that the Ultra-Humanite was the very first super-villain ever faced by Superman, way back in Action Comics #13 (1939)?
And did you know that Ultra-Humanite (we never learned his real name until 2009) was the very first recurring super-villain...at any comic company?!? He cheated death many a time--he was the origin of the cliche!!And in Action Comics #20 (1940), with his body dying, the Ultra-Humanite kidnapped comely young actress Dolores Winters, and had his brain transplanted into her body!!
Soon after that the Ultra-Humanite was put out to pasture, not to be revived until the late Silver Age, first as a recurring villain for the Mr. And Mrs. Superman series. Then he got hold of an albino gorilla from Gorilla City, put his brain in there, and the Ultra-Humanite we're most familiar with was born in 1981.
He became a mainstay then. Roy Thomas used him as a frequent villain in All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc., and he would regularly plague the Justice Society.Did I mention that he once had his brain transplanted into a T-Rex?
He survived Crisis On Infinite Earths, with the fairly easy Roy Thomas retcon of "all his old Golden Age stories happened, he just fought other people." (See, DC writers--was that so hard?)
He survived Infinite Crisis, although his origin was messed around with a bit (and of course made more disgusting).
But now? Where the Crises couldn't bring him down, it looks as if Flashpoint might have done him in.
Of course,there's plenty of wiggle room in Holt's caption, and he is only the third smartest person (maybe the Ultra-Humanite is 1st or 2nd?). And maybe DC will reintroduce him in the nu52, no doubt with even more carnage and blood and bestiality and whatever passes for "more real-world" in nu52.But if they don't revive him, a tangible piece of comics history will be lost.
Maybe Grant Morrison will make him the first super-villain that Clark Kent has to face...we can only hope.
Mr T was obviously referring to the technologically stunted Earth-1 21st Century.
ReplyDeleteYou watch - James Robinson will have the new JSA's Earth-2 history positively littered with brain transplants, multi-coloured Kryptonite, 5th dimensional imps and mad scientists with nary a hint of bestiality.
Interesting thought on Earth-2, but will they play up the series as Justice Infinity (pre-Flushpoint), or the Super-Squad days of the 1970s? Because the whole point of the JSA going away was to get rid of 80 year old heroes. Hopefully we'll see some Times Past tales like Robinson did in Starman.
ReplyDeleteWow. I never knew how revolutionary the Ultra-Humanite was. Here I was thinking he was just another run-of-the-mill, mid-60s villain. Thanks for straightening that all out for me.
ReplyDeleteSomebody call me when they undo all this new stuff next year.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he'll be in the new DCnU in a more covert, behind-the-scenes capacity?
ReplyDelete