Who has the worst origin in DC?

[Babytoxie]

Originally Posted by sellin71

I rarely read DC with the exception of the Green Lantern series while growing up. What was the point of having this guy and Plastic Man?

I recently read an explanation for this. During the Silver Age, Julius Schwartz wanted DC to have a character like Plastic Man as a backup feature in The Flash. Unbeknownst to him, DC had already acquired the rights to Plas, but since they'd already published EM's adventures, they kept him around. But I agree, EM's origin is pretty stupid. "Gingold Soda"... please.

I always thought Blue Devil's origin was the height of stupidity. From Wikipedia:

Daniel Patrick Cassidy was a special effects wizard and stuntman hired to create and play the title character in the movie Blue Devil. To that end Cassidy created a full-body costume with a hidden powered exoskeleton and built-in special-effects devices. When two of his co-stars accidentally freed a demon named Nebiros, Cassidy used his costume to drive the demon back, but not before being blasted with mystical energy. After the fight, Cassidy found that the blast had permanently grafted the Blue Devil costume to his body. Ironically, Cassidy is a devout Catholic.

Cassidy quickly found himself embroiled in repeated adventures and conflicts with supervillains. Apparently, the blast that fused him with his costume had also turned him into a sort of "weirdness magnet". Although he continued to seek a way to regain a normal life, Cassidy became more comfortable as a superhero over time and eventually joined the Justice League of America. In his series, Cassidy was occasionally assisted by his personal fanboy and fellow powersuit user, Kid Devil (Eddie Bloomberg).

Yeeaaaahhhhhhhhhhh...

[risingstar]

Originally Posted by pendragon

So was the Super Friends
Another cartoon writen for toddlers.
Batman was a joke & didn't regain any respect until Timm's Batman cartoon.

Good point on the Super Friends. However, Plastic Man didn't have Neal Adams to up the super cool factor in comics. PM was light and fun no matter where you saw him. I suppose that's the point. There was no alternative representation, at least not for a long while.

I wasn't crazy about the Super Friends growing up as it felt more toddlerish than I would have liked. However, the show got better when they became the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Timm's Batman is a classic.

[Sledge Hammer!]

Elongated Man is a completely different character than Plastic Man though, despite similar (though not identical) abilities. In fact I'd say that Elongated Man is actually a lot closer in description to being a detective version of Mr Fantastic, than he is being a Plas knockoff, even though Ralph's creation obviously predated Reed by a year or so.

Despite his stretching abilities, Elongated Man has always been primarily a detective, in fact his detective and deductive reasoning skills rival Batman's own, and Batman has often stated that he is one of the heroes that he respects most. He was also one of the first heroes to not only get married, but also to stay happily married, and also often work with his wife during his various adventures, which led to her being an honorary member of the JLA, and member of the Super Buddies group, despite having no superhuman abilities of her own.

Yeah he has a (very) dodgy silver age origin, but he still grew into being a great character.

[VinReaper]

I don't read DC enough to know all the secondary characters. Batman, Superman, Aquaman, GL, WW, GA, etc are all cool!


Who do you think has the weakest origin?


VR

[Babytoxie]

Originally Posted by Sledge Hammer!

Worst origin? Hmm, most origins are pretty silly or dodgy when it comes right down to it, but I'd have to go with Captain Marvel. A homeless young boy is picked up by a "mysterious stranger" and led into a dark tunnel, where he is taken to see the Wizard Shazam who will grant him "amazing powers"...yeah, I'm sure I saw this on To Catch A Predator once.

Yeah, this always creeped me out until I read Jerry Ordway's THE POWER OF SHAZAM! graphic novel, which actually provides an explanation of who the "mysterious stranger" is.

[Sledge Hammer!]

Yeah that reveal was actually pretty damn cool really, and like you say, made a lot of sense in retrospect. But, man, Power Of Shazam was full of great stuff, Ordway really got the Marvel Family and their place in the DCU spot on with that graphic novel and the series that followed.