# Mundane changes to comic book origin stories **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 25, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882 "2012-04-25T04:24:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/101 "2012-04-27T03:23:47Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Zatanna, female stage magician and daughter of a well-known mystic, increases the popularity of her act by seeding a rumor that she can actually perform real magic and staging several semi-public “encounters” with the “supernatural”. Until her agent explained, “Face it, Babe, they ain’t coming here to see your card tricks.” ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/102 "2012-04-27T05:07:57Z")
A man named Boston Brand died. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/103 "2012-04-27T07:11:26Z")
Saul Erdel builds a machine that plucks a Martian police officer from the ancient past of Mars and sets him on Twentieth-Century Earth. The Martian dies of malnutrition in days due to an inability to metabolize the proteins of terrestrial organisms. Young mutant Dinah Lance discovers the superhuman power of her larynx when she shouts at her father during an argument and creates a shockwave that throws him through a wall. Her terrified parents have her larynx surgically removed. (Yes, I know this requires her parents to be really different people.) Fortune hunter Rex Mason is hired to loot, I mean, “retrieve,” rare Egyptian artifacts for the wealthy Simon Stagg. He smuggles the Orb of Ra out of Egypt & into Stagg’s possession, and marries Stagg’s daughter Sapphire.[sup]\*[/sup] Career bureaucrat Amanda Waller is not considered leadership material by her superiors, and supervision of Task Force X is handed to some 30-year-old whiz kid whose dad contributed a lot of money to politicians. The operation is dissolved inside three years when it turns out to have spent all its missions in places with high-end hotels, and most of its budget on prostitutes. Career bureaucrat Amanda Waller is not considered leadership material by her superiors, and supervision of Task Force X is handed to King Faraday. They serve quietly and professionally for years. [sup]\*\*[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/104 "2012-04-27T11:33:50Z")
Wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne, having trained for years to fight crime after vthe mugging death of his parents, ponders how to disguise his identity and is startled when his window is broken by a three-toed sloth. Odin the All-Father, disgusted by the boastful and overbearing nature of his son Thor, considers giving him amnesia and sending him to live as a mortal on Earth with a limp so that he might learn humility, but decides that it would be better to just make him spend a couple of centuries cleaning out the latrines in Valhalla instead. Scientist Phineas Horton creates an andrioid that can reason and act human. The first time he shows him off to others, though, exposing him to air causes him to burst into flame, making a Human Torch. Unfortunnately, the android’s body is consumed in seconds, leaving a pile of ashes and a determination by Prof. Horton to fix that bug in the biochemistry for his next attempt. Student Victor Frankenstein finallty succeeds in creating life, a huge but (despite his efforts) ugly creature. Even though he is tired, and the creature is ugly, Victor is delighted, because he created it. He keeps him and names him “George”, and gives him a bunny. The Voivode Dracula attends the Devil’s school, the _Scholomance_, to learn the Black arts. But, as he was not the tenth student chosen, he didn’t become a vampire, and ended up in an interesting corner of Hell after a lifetime of depravity. John Carter, Civil War veteran turned Western adventurer, finds himself astrally projected to the planet Mars, where he immediately suffocates in the extremely thin atmosphere. Sometime later, the gorgeous oviparous Martian Princess Dejah Thoris, dressed only in jewels, comes across his remains and wonders who he was. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/105 "2012-04-27T16:09:28Z")
Clark Savage dies of undiagnosed melanoma. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/106 "2012-04-27T16:22:29Z")
Barry Allen, having been transformed into The Flash by a freak accident involving a lightning bolt and a rack of chemicals, has to spend every waking moment of the rest of his life consuming massive amounts of calories to keep his overactive metabolism from killing him via starvation. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/107 "2012-04-27T17:18:47Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Johnny Clay was born in 1850 and orphaned as an infant. He was adopted by Ben Bart. In 1868, Bart was murdered. Johnny immediately moved east and took up residence in NYC. He became a regular in certain, rather secretive, “Gentlemens Clubs” where he was known as “The Rawhide Kid” for reasons that are lost to history. And he complained that his job was “kind of butthole at times.” ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/108 "2012-04-27T17:32:30Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Tony Stark, with shrapnel near his heart, builds a device to keep his heart going using those newfangled transistors, and dies when it turns out transistors don’t work that way. \*Tiny \*transistors, if I recall correctly. Dr. Solar somehow managed to trap himself inside an operating nuclear reactor, giving him the power to turn himself into all forms of energy. Unfortunately, it did not give him the power to turn himself back. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/109 "2012-05-18T15:40:05Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > Test Pilot Hal Jordan is given a ring of power that grants him the ability to create solid objects from green light and to generate force fields. It also enslaves him to Sauron. Winner! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/110 "2012-05-18T19:30:55Z")
Disfigured meglomaniac Vincent Von Doom, with the aid of both scientific superweapons and sorcery, attempts to seize the Eastern European territory that in medieval times formed the principality of Latveria. After a tremendous five-week struggle the full mobilized might of the Soviet Union crushes the upstart, and Doom is tortured to death by the KGB. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/111 "2012-05-18T20:27:35Z")
Harvey Dent has acid thrown in his face. His wealthy friend Bruce Wayne hires the best plastic surgeon in the world, who corrects all the damage without leaving any scars. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Captain\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_M)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/112 "2012-05-21T15:07:25Z")
Six castaways return from a long exile on a deserted island. originally, they were 7, but they killed and ate the skinny one in the red shirt for constantly foiling any attempts they had to escape the island. In related news a family of space travelers finally manage to return to Earth after imprisoning and hogtying the backstabbing angry queen that kept constantly sabotaging them. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/113 "2012-05-21T15:32:29Z")
In 1940, hard boiled police detective Jim Corrigan, while investigating crime boss “Gat” Benson, was murdered by Benson and his henchmen. They placed Corrigan’s body in a barrel, filled it with cement, and dropped it in deep water. Corrigan was listed as a missing person for many years. His fate was finally revealed in 1962 during RFK’s crackdown on organized crime. One of Benson’s associates, Red “Onions” O’Shaughnessy, traded the details of Corrigan’s fate in exchange for immunity from prosecution. O’Shaughnessy was an early beneficiary of the witness protection program. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/114 "2012-05-21T19:28:39Z")
> [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](#): > > Being a rich idiot with no survival training, Oliver Queen starved to death shortly after becoming shipwrecked on a dessert island. > [@drastic\_quench](#): > > What kind of idiot can’t survive on a dessert island? The hot fudge waterfall alone should supply enough calories - to say nothing of the gumdrop mountains. [Nuñez!](http://pbfcomics.com/145/) 25th-century museum security guard Michael Jon Carter travels to the 20th century after stealing several items from the museum, including a Legion of Superheroes flight ring and Brainiac 5’s force-field belt. He planned to use this technology, along with his knowledge of future events to gain glory as a “super hero”. He chose the name “Booster Gold”, but before he could begin his career as a “super hero” he was taken into custody by time-traveling police and returned to the 25th century to stand trial for his thefts. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/115 "2012-05-22T00:46:01Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > Matt Murdock is blinded by chemicals when a child and eventually, with the help of his guide dog, goes on to become a successful attorney for the rights of the disabled. The chemicals wind up in a sewer where they cause a rat and four turtles to become ill and die. ---
**Author:** ![demarke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@demarke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/demarke)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/116 "2012-05-24T17:08:29Z")
Patrick “Eel” O’Brian becomes Plastic Man! Realizing that his flexibility is no longer encumbered by his ribcage, he spends the rest of his days getting to know himself just a little bit better. The Super Globetrotters decide not to take on other challengers and stick to their formula of systematically dismantling the Washington Generals ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/117 "2012-05-24T19:04:20Z")
After his parents are murdered, young Dick Grayson becomes the ward of secretive millionaire Bruce Wayne. In the years that follow, no crime fighting occurs. But there are occasionally some costumes. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/118 "2012-05-24T19:27:43Z")
Lotta Plump was born to middle class parents in suburban Bonnie Dell. From an early age she was unable to control her appetite. Obesity inevitably resulted. She lost her first toes to diabetes at 16. They buried her in a piano crate two weeks before her 28th birthday. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/119 "2012-05-29T12:41:21Z")
‘I’m sorry Mr Giles. I know that helping you in the school library is important, but so is Buffy’s education. That’s why I’m sending her to the Sunnydale Catholic College where they have a strict lock-in at 6pm every night. Can’t Xander help you stack books on his own?’ ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882/120 "2012-05-29T18:38:54Z")
Scientist Henry Pym discovers a new subatomic particle that he labels “Pym Particles.” Deciding to test the particles on himself, Pym reduces his size to that of an ant. At this size, his skull no longer has the capacity to hold a brain with enough neurons to support human intelligence and Pym is never able to regain his former size. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-changes-to-comic-book-origin-stories/619882.md?page=7)