Most bizarre origin stories

[Nerys Myk]

But the fact that Sasquatch is a bright orange monster without a touch of green is an indicator that gamma radiation had nothing to do with his transformation

The Hulk was gray at first.

For like an issue. It's not like they were ten years into the series and sprang green on the readership.

Did I say they did? They did bring it back and developed a story arc about it.

The gamma=Green thing is stupid.

Right, it's stupid... and it gave the Hulk and the entire series a unique signature that grew to iconic status.[/QUOTE] Not seeing it as iconic. Hulk being green is somewhat iconic. The other gamma green characters, not so much.

 

[BigJake]

It was initially believed that Sasquatch was orange because there were cosmic rays in the mix. It was later revealed that his experiment had weakened dimensional barriers and allowed one of the Great Beasts to possess him. He was never a gamma ray mutate at all (unless they retconned that later).

I always thought the "computer hormonal remote control operation done by an omniscient A.I. satellite" origin story of the original OMAC (One Many Army Corps) was delightfully bonkers, as was the proto-cyberpunk setting he was part of. (If this is ever an entry in the MCU I will be so all over it.)

OMAC is a DC....

Oh, right. Maybe not then.

 

[Silvercrest]

No, you're right! If OMAC is ever an entry in the MCU, a lot of people will be all over it! DC's attorneys, for starters.

I liked what Byrne did with Alpha Flight. I hated how the next creative team that came along couldn't take away the elements of his unique approach and turn them into a generic super-team fast enough.

(And FWIW, the bizarre Puck origin was the work of that next creative team, not Byrne.)

Correct. Bill Mantlo was the writer that followed Byrne and delivered that ridiculous "cursed blade = shortening" origin for Puck. Mantlo didn't seem to have any idea what to do with Alpha Flight and his tenure on the title was, thankfully, brief.

Thank you both for that info (and the altitude thing).

I read one of his issues where the Purple Girl runs away from the team. Around the same time I also read an issue of Psi-Force where Kathy Ling runs away from the team. It was like the same issue twice.

Between that and the silliness of his Invasion! script, I keep wondering if Mantlo ever wrote anything good after the 1970s. I guess he did, but I sure never saw it in the late '80s. (Yes, I know Invasion! was mostly Keith Giffen's baby.)

Probably shouldn't speak ill of the guy after what happened to him, but every time I see his work all I can do is . Maybe I should go back and re-read my old issues of Micronauts to square things.

 

[Reverend]

Not sure if it counts as an origin persee, but I gather the early continuity for Ms. Marvel is notoriously bonkers. Something about a stalker who impregnates her in her dreams so she can give birth to him in the real world and be his wife...and everyone else in the room was fine with this because reasons? I think they later retconned it as brainwashing, but at the time I'm pretty sure it was meant to be sincere.

On the DC side of things, Power Girl's is probably one of the more convoluted origins as (assuming they haven't retconned since last I checked) it involves her being an alternate universe version of Supergirl who somehow survived that universe going kaboom (after that and her version of Krypton, she must be developing a bot of a complex, no?) but forgot who she really was because reasons. Also, cleavage is somehow representative of her perceived unworthiness.

When you get right down to it, the nature of comic continuity means just about every character's story is inherently weird and convoluted at some point or another.

 

[JoeZhang]

Not sure if it counts as an origin persee, but I gather the early continuity for Ms. Marvel is notoriously bonkers. Something about a stalker who impregnates her in her dreams so she can give birth to him in the real world and be his wife...and everyone else in the room was fine with this because reasons? I think they later retconned it as brainwashing, but at the time I'm pretty sure it was meant to be sincere.

The story was fairly controversial at the time - various feminists wrote letters about it and it was retconned by Chris Claremont who also did a meta-critique at the same time:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresource...ages-chris-claremont-sticks-up-for-ms-marvel/

 

[Admiral2]

The Hulk was gray at first.

For like an issue. It's not like they were ten years into the series and sprang green on the readership.

Did I say they did? They did bring it back and developed a story arc about it.

True, and gray hulk was always smarter...

The gamma=Green thing is stupid.

Right, it's stupid... and it gave the Hulk and the entire series a unique signature that grew to iconic status.

Not seeing it as iconic. Hulk being green is somewhat iconic. The other gamma green characters, not so much.

The Abomination, The Leader and Doc Samson aren't iconic? Who does that leave for a Hulk adversary, Rocket Raccoon?

 

[Reverend]

The Abomination, The Leader and Doc Samson aren't iconic? Who does that leave for a Hulk adversary, Rocket Raccoon?

Outside of comic fandom, I don't think many people are even aware those characters exist. But that's less of a Hulk specific issue than a general Marvel one: largely unmemorable rogues galleries. Spider-man is probably the only one with adversaries can even name.

Mind you, Lex Luthor aside, most of the DC villains non-comic book fans could probably name are almost certainly Batman villains.

I suppose it depends on how narrow or wide a definition one has of "iconic". To my way of thinking, if it doesn't come to mind (like say Batman and Joker), then it's by definition not iconic.

 

[shivkala]

I can't find any origin on him, and he's very obscure, but I present to you Snowflame, whose power is to go from a South American drug lord into a supervillain by snorting copious amounts of cocaine. I'm not sure he even warrants an origin, but I'd imagine it would be him trying his own product to find it gives him super powers. In the words of Stan Lee, "'Nuff Said."

 

[Admiral2]

The Abomination, The Leader and Doc Samson aren't iconic? Who does that leave for a Hulk adversary, Rocket Raccoon?

Outside of comic fandom, I don't think many people are even aware those characters exist. But that's less of a Hulk specific issue than a general Marvel one: largely unmemorable rogues galleries. Spider-man is probably the only one with adversaries can even name.

Mind you, Lex Luthor aside, most of the DC villains non-comic book fans could probably name are almost certainly Batman villains.

I suppose it depends on how narrow or wide a definition one has of "iconic". To my way of thinking, if it doesn't come to mind (like say Batman and Joker), then it's by definition not iconic.

Fine, but my take really doesn't depend on individual characters. The notion of green=gamma itself lends a signature to the entire Hulk concept, regardless of who ends up green and who doesn't. It's the notion that's iconic, even if the characters struck by it aren't.

 

[Taylirious]

Superman

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Outside of comic fandom, I don't think many people are even aware those characters exist.

But we are talking about comic fandom. We're talking about Sasquatch and Alpha Flight. He's far more obscure than the Leader or the Abomination.

 

[Anwar]

Captain America.

Erskine: Here, drink this.

Steve: Okay, but I don't see-Good Lord! I'm superhuman!

 

[Gryffindorian]

Solomon Grundy - Swamp
Plastic Man - Falling into a vat of chemicals
Daredevil - Chemicals caused blindness and superhuman reflexes
Spiderman - Radioactive spider

 

[kirk55555]

I can't find any origin on him, and he's very obscure, but I present to you Snowflame, whose power is to go from a South American drug lord into a supervillain by snorting copious amounts of cocaine. I'm not sure he even warrants an origin, but I'd imagine it would be him trying his own product to find it gives him super powers. In the words of Stan Lee, "'Nuff Said."

Snowflame never had an origin as far as I know. He was just a one shot villain in The New Guardians, a spin off from a DC event in the 80s that had a bunch of people be given special powers by aliens for humanity or something (although two of them had powers before the event).

The book was horrible, although memorable for both Snowflame and for two of the characters (Jet and Extrano) getting HIV, apparently after being bitten by an AIDS infected vampire villain. Extrano was also a fairly obviously homosexual character, which I've read might make him the first obviously (and purposefully) homosexual hero in one of the major companies, although comic practice at the time never allowed them to outright state his orientation.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Captain America.

Erskine: Here, drink this.

Steve: Okay, but I don't see-Good Lord! I'm superhuman!

How is this bizarre?

 

[Saga]

Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, owes his powers to hard water...somehow. fumes from a lab accident i think.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Not sure if it counts as an origin persee, but I gather the early continuity for Ms. Marvel is notoriously bonkers. Something about a stalker who impregnates her in her dreams so she can give birth to him in the real world and be his wife...and everyone else in the room was fine with this because reasons? I think they later retconned it as brainwashing, but at the time I'm pretty sure it was meant to be sincere.

Yeah, it's not an origin story as it takes place well after she gained her powers. It's just a weird story.

Though her origin is a bit complex. She first appears as a supporting character in the Captain Marvel book,Carol Danvers head of security at a rocket base. She gets caught in an explosion which somehow merges her DNA with Captain Marvel's.Though the explosion takes place in a comic published in 1969 and she get's her powers in a comic published in 1977. Her first costume, like Power Girl's, features a cutout. Her's is on the midriff.

On the DC side of things, Power Girl's is probably one of the more convoluted origins as (assuming they haven't retconned since last I checked) it involves her being an alternate universe version of Supergirl who somehow survived that universe going kaboom (after that and her version of Krypton, she must be developing a bot of a complex, no?) but forgot who she really was because reasons. Also, cleavage is somehow representative of her perceived unworthiness.

When you get right down to it, the nature of comic continuity means just about every character's story is inherently weird and convoluted at some point or another.

It's convoluted because of retcons and reboots. Originally she was the alternate version of Supergirl in the PreCrisis Earth 2 Universe. The cousin of the Superman of that universe ( based on his Golden Age adventures). This we true for about a decade. Then Crisis on Infinite Earths wiped out that continuity, but they decided to keep the Power Girl character, eventually making her an ancient Atlantean with a mystical origin,which remained true for about twenty years, until Geoff Johns decided to bring back the Earth 2 origin and the Atlantean thing became a false memory. These days she's just the cousin of the Earth 2 Superman and the Atlantean thing never happened.

The cleavage thing sounds familiar, but I'm sure its a later addition to the story.

Power Girl and Ms Marvel were both created by Gerry Conway and were meant to be feminists.

 

[shivkala]

The cleavage thing sounds familiar, but I'm sure its a later addition to the story.

It was in an issue of JSA by Johns and it wasn't necessarily the cleavage (though...). This was after she found out that her Atlantean origin was a fake, but before Infinite Crisis. She mentioned that when she first came to Earth and found out she wasn't Superman's cousin, she felt alone. The spot on her chest was meant to represent a literal hole, as it would be where a symbol, like Kal's S-shield should go, but couldn't since she didn't have anything to put there.

I'm doing this from memory, but I think that kind of sums it up.

Though it does make one wonder (aside from "real world" answers), why didn't she adopt Kal-L's S-shield following Infinite Crisis to represent she found where she belonged?
http://www.trekbbs.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[Saga]

there is an old issue of All Star Squad (i think. maybe it was in the 70s revival of All Star Comics) where Star Spangled Kid makes Power Girl a P shield similar to Superman's S shield. she immediately crushes the shield saying she doesn't want to be a copy of Superman. she even calls Star Spangled Kid a chauvinist pig.

 

[Silvercrest]

Mockingbird's origin story may be all right, but the introduction of her character was pretty bizarre.