The Jungle Patrol and Inter-Intel

Lee Falk, the late creator of The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, has been quoted as saying that his two heroes represent the triumph of democracy over dictatorship, the latter he loathed. Both Phantom and Mandrake fight evil in the garb of criminals and dictators who are brought to justice in their own distinct, yet effective, styles. While Phantom uses his fists, Mandrake uses his magic.

Both heroes often mete out justice through law enforcement organisations they are associated with.

In the Phantom's case, only the feared Pygmy Bandar tribe know that The Ghost Who Walks is also the secret head of the Jungle Patrol founded by the sixth Phantom. The latter, led by a colonel as second-in-command, don't know who their mysterious commander is. They usually report to a safe, kept in an empty room, in which the Phantom leaves credible instructions. 

How the Phantom gets there is another story, but it would make any hydraulic engineer proud.

Mandrake, on the other hand, often solves cases for Inter-Intel, the global crime-fighting organisation loosely fashioned on Interpol. He comes to know, quite late into the comics, that the secret chief of Inter-Intel is none other than his ass-kicking chef—Hojo. Till then he deals with the bearded Jed, the police chief and Hojo's deputy.

How Mandrake chases Hojo and finally catches up with him at Inter-Intel HQ, to discover his true identity, is another story for another day.

The Jungle Patrol operates from the outskirts of a jungle, in Bangalla, and appears as if it could do with more hands while Inter-Intel is a sophisticated organisation that could give the FBI a run for its dollars.

Characters like the Jungle Patrol (collectively that is) and Hojo make Phantom and Mandrake comics more colourful and interesting to read and savour.

Battle of the giants: The Thing vs. The Hulk

SCENE STEALERS

Tombstone (1993)

'Hell's coming with me!'

"You tell them I am coming and Hell's coming with me, you hear! HELL is coming with me!!" — Lawman Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) in the 1993 western Tombstone directed by George P. Cosmatos. Earp, his two brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton), and old friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) fight a bunch of outlaws in Tombstone, Arizona. Don't miss the gunfight scene at the O.K. Corral.

Copyright: DC

Shazam! I am Superman

Captain Marvel—the world's mightiest mortal—gave Superman many sleepless nights after his debut in Whiz Comics in 1940, two years after the Man of Steel hurtled to planet earth in Action Comics #1. During the 1940s Captain Marvel came perilously close to wresting the ‘most popular superhero’ title from Superman, till DC Comics sued the mighty mortal’s publisher, Fawcett Publications, for copyright infringement.

Fawcett stopped publishing Captain Marvel in 1953 and, in fact, sold the rights to DC which relaunched him in February 1973 in a comic book titled Shazam! The Original Captain Marvel—where he is introduced by none other than Superman himself (see above).

By the time Captain Marvel was integrated into the DC Universe, his appeal and popularity had already waned, even though DC tried to revive him again in 1994.

While Clark Kent pulls off his glasses and rips open his shirt on the run and becomes Superman, Billy Batson merely shouts the magic word “Shazam!” and turns into Captain Marvel.

The only similarities between the two invincible superheroes, as far as I can see, are that both Kent and Batson are reporters—one news, the other radio; as Superman and Captain Marvel they dress and look alike—one in blue, the other in red; and both can fly. Copyright infringement, eh?

Psst!: Whenever young Billy Batson cries out the name of the wizard, Shazam, he is instantly bestowed with the powers of six ancient gods and mythical heroes—Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury—the first letters adding up to, you guessed it, Shazam! Powers equivalent to the combined powers of all the superheroes known to you and me. No wonder Superman felt threatened. One more thing: Shazam is not Captain Marvel, it's only a war cry that brings the mightiest mortal alive.

Growing up with Harry Potter

Last week I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on HBO thrice, each time in bits and parts, though, and yet I can’t claim to have seen the whole film. There are two reasons: I am still reading the book and, frankly, my obsession with Harry Potter, at least the movies, ended with The Order of the Phoenix—the fifth and decisive book in the series where Harry and his friends grow up too fast, too soon, and begin to lose their childlike innocence to emotional upheavals even as they dig up a new and terrifying adventure at Hogwarts.

Like all 10 and 70-year olds, I have fond memories of the little boy who lived, from the time Dumbledore leaves him on the Dursley’s doorstep till he finds out what lies behind the chamber of secrets, learns he has a guardian and single-handedly takes on the Dementors, unwittingly participates in a dangerous inter-wizardry school competition, and forms Dumbledore’s army to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic—the crux of the stories in Harry Potter 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. No more.

Books 5 & 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have their share of hair-raising tales and scary scenes and appear more for grown-ups than children.

The special effects in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as in all the Potter films, are mind-blowing, especially the scenes where the Death Eaters, in a fury of cloud and dust, whiz through Muggle territory and destroy a London bridge. I have not yet seen the first part of Deathly Hallows.

I will still read about the deaths of Dumbledore, Snape, Lupin, Tonks and Fred in the final two installments of the Potter fantasy, if only because reading a book gives you an imaginative space that no film on earth does. And yes, Rowling's boy wizard continues to tickle my imagination. Voldemort do you want?

Snape and Bellatrix take the honours

Prof. Severus Snape

Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange

Here's a question all Harry Potter fans ask each other: Who are your favourite characters in the Potter series? Mine are Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). Snape, in spite of his cold and evil character, is comical, unintentionally so, and Bellatrix is arguably the most hideous character I have seen on screen in a long time. Both are fine actors and are eminently watchable. Do you agree?

SUPERHERO AND HIS SIDEKICK

Batman and Robin

Copyright: DC Comics

The Incredible Hulk: Man or monster or both?

"Within all of us, oftimes, there dwells a mighty, raging fury."

Issue #1 released in May 1962

The Incredible Hulk, the strangest man of all time, is also the most misunderstood of all the superheroes. One moment he is the reclusive physicist Dr. Bruce Banner and the next the raging monster Hulk with no particular agenda. And yet the Hulk's existence is not so strange. There is, after all, a Hulk inside all of us. A terrifying alter ego that gets out of our true character every once in a while. Perhaps, not in the angry, impulsive and destructive manner as the green monster. But who doesn't want to be like the Hulk and take on the world? Imagine the boost to your self-esteem.

This week I reread Marvel's Special 30th Anniversary Issue of The Incredible Hulk [Vol.1 #393, May 1991] which commemorates the first issue of the "man or monster" released in May 1962. The covers of both editions are identical in every way except for the Hulk who looks meaner, greener and more menacing in the reissue. In contrast, he looks like a knucklehead in the original.

The Special 30th Anniversary Issue

Dr. Banner, predictably, looks out of sorts in both. Like he would rather be some other place even as he is metamorphosing into the Hulk. Either way, there is no escape for poor Banner, is there?

I read the original issue more than three decades ago though I don't have it in my collection. I do, however, own the commemorative issue.

I liked several things about the reissue, including the stories, but most of all the full-length posters of "Classic Hulk Battles" as they appeared in the original comics.

To begin with, you have the green monster battling Wolverine in Canada. "In his wanderings through Canada, the Hulk came across the most unlikely of foes—a short, feisty government agent who could not even begin to approach the Hulk's immense strength," the caption says. "But Canada's Weapon X proved to be the mutant we know as Wolverine, in his first recorded adventure. And Wolverine's agility and unbreakable adamantium claws make him a match even for a monster who could level mountains."

The battle with Wolverine is followed by posters of other epic battles with superheroes like Thor, Silver Surfer, The Avengers and The Thing, to name the more famous.

The bonus in this special issue is an eight-page section titled Psychological Ramifications of Gamma Radiation, a case history of the Incredible Hulk submitted to the American Psychological Association by Leonard Samson, Ph.D. The text and pictures chart the life and times of the green monster—a fascinating tale of one who asserts loudly "Hulk is the strongest there is."