Speaking of Doc Savage references in peculiar places, I watched an episode of “Archie’s Weird Mysteries” at a party recently, and Dilton, the science genius/geek, exclaimed “I’ll be superamalgamated!” upon a particular discovery. Unexpected and delightful.
That’s
really funny because…and not to put too fine a point on it… but Archie was always
made by old-timers, which is always why it always seemed charmingly trapped in time. Archie artist Dan DeCarlo always reminded me of Superman’s Curt Swan in that he worked on
the character of Archie on and off for over 40 years.
By
this point, I think Doc Savage is kind of like John Carter of Mars: his
“children,” his descendants, like Mr. Spock, Bane, and Buckaroo Banzai, are
better known than he is, and probably will remain that way.
I
don’t like saying that <insert obscuro 1930s ephemera here> was the
inspiration for <insert juggernaut pop culture force here>, since it
reminds me of a quote that “success has a thousand fathers, while failure is an
orphan.” If I had a dollar for every pulp scifi story that claimed to inspire
Star Wars, I’d be updating this blog from a tropical island with giraffes that
I own. Still, considering how big Doc was in its own time, it’s interesting to
draw a straight line between Doc Savage and some of Marvel’s characters,
including those that have a wisecracking rivalry and surface dislike that masks
some real respect, like the Thing and Torch from Fantastic Four. The Marvel Comic to show the most
Doc Savage influence is definitely Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, since
it was all about a hero who leads a team, who all happen to be a group of funny
looking, crazy characters.
But
don’t take my word for it, listen to Stan Lee himself:
Doc Savage and his oddly assorted team might be considered the progenitors of today’s Fantastic Four and many other teams of superheroes.
Mooncustafer 