Popular Culture Review Vol. 17, No. 2, Summer 2006 | Page 114

110 Popular Culture Review and Mary Kent? Eben and Sarah? Jonathan and Martha?) And the characters, if not the Sophoclean creations [Stan] Lee suggested they were, were not interchangeable hero-drone units inhabiting the DC universe, either (59). 11 Given the soap-opera nature o f comics, i.e., without conflict there can be no story; the idea o f living “happily-ever-after” is a misnomer, hi subsequent issues o f The Avengers, The V ision’s “control crystal" malfunctions and he “became bent on creating a new golden age o f peace on Earth by seizing control o f the world’s computers and defense systems. Ultimately, the Vision reverted to form by severing his comiection to the planet’s databanks and extracting the control crystal from his mechanized mind. In the wake o f the android Avengers’ meltdown, the nations o f Earth came to regard him as a high-level security threat. Government operatives abducted and dismantled the Vision, erasing his memory. The Scarlet Witch and the Avengers recovered their teammates’ components, and Pym rebuilt and reprogrammed the Vision. The scientist downloaded the sum total o f the Avengers’ computer files into the synthezoid's neural processors, but Wonder Man refused to allow a new record o f his brain patterns to be synthesized. Apparently, he had grown resentful o f his digital doppelganger and was attracted to the Scarlet Witch himself. Hence, the Vision returned to existence sans human emotion, unable even to recall his love for his wife" (Marveldirectory.com). Origins o f Marvel Comics was published in 1974 and Son o f Origins o f Marvel Comics the following year in 1975. Both o f these volumes served to “reproduce and burnish the creation myths o f the great sixties characters’* (Lethem, “The Return o f the King"). In the “Neighborhood Profile” section o f New York Magazine on the Internet, Cobble Hill is described in this way: “The Basics: Slightly cheaper than Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill is home to quiet streets lined with quaint brownstones as well as Court Street’s happening restaurants and bars. Boundaries: Stretches from Atlantic Avenue to Douglass Street and from Columbia to Smith Streets. Borders: Brooklyn Heights and Carroll Gardens" (http://www.newyorkmetro.com/realestate/articles/neighborhoods/ cobblehill.htm). 14 Perhaps this is a nod to Lee and Kirby’s The Fantastic Four. When asked why he doesn’t have a secret identity. Super Goat Man answers, “I wasn’t that kind o f superhero” (125). Perhaps as a parody o f the Superman story, when asked if his parents were “sad when you gave up your secret identity,” Super Goat Man smiles and answers, “They weren’t my real parents. I was adopted" (125). Before the Fantastic Four, all superheroes had “secret identities.” The assumption behind this trope was that the hero needed to shield the identity o f his (and later her) “other” self in order to protect the lives o f loved ones. That is, if Superman, for example, let it be known that his “other s e lf’ was Clark Kent, he would put his parents and friends and associates in harm’s way since they could be targeted to get to him. But though the members o f the Fantastic Four— Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grim— take on the superhero “name-tag” (Reed is “Mr. Fantastic;” Sue, “The Invisible Girl;” her brother, Johnny, is “The Human Torch;” and Ben is simply, “The Thing”) they do so not conceal their identities; rather, these names offer the reader (and the writer) a kind o f short hand. Interestingly, the characters use their birth names and heroic names interchangeably. For example, in any stoiy line, one might “hear*’ Reed yell out: “Johnny,