In the Marvel universe who is the “gray man” and where did he come from?
In DC’s the Forever People whatever happened to Mantis one of their arch enemies?
In Marvel’s “Thor” series, where did Desak the God Killer get his powers?
Who was “The Stranger” in the Marvel Universe and where did he come from?
In the DC universe how old are Batman and Superman right now in their respective titles?
Whatever happened to Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy?
He’s still around, one of Darkseid’s tools on Apokolips. He appeared in Legion of Super-Heroes # 97, which was part of the abysmal Genesis cross-over.
The Stranger was a single being formed of the combined essence of an immense planet called Gigantus. Gigantus was under attack from another planet, whose name I don’t recall (Eternus, perhaps?), but whose essence also ended up being combined into a single being, this one called the Over-Mind.
I believe they now reside in the Savage Land.
[QUOTE=astro]
Who was “The Stranger” in the Marvel Universe and where did he come from?QUOTE]
Ooooh! Oooh! I know this one.
“The Stranger” debuted in an issue of “Fantastic Four.” The Watcher had solemnly intoned that they were in danger of an awesome being known as “The Overmind.” “From beyond the stars shall come the Overmind, and he shall crush the universe,” as super-baddies are wont to do.
“The Overmind,” (whose real name was variously spelled “Gorm” and “Grom,”) was the embodiment of the “life energies” of an population entire planet, so he was one bad MF.
Well, Overmind procedes to layeth the smacketh down on the F4, until they are rescued from some awesome being known as “The Stranger.” Turns out, the stranger was a similar “creation” from an even bigger planet than Overmind’s.
How big you ask? It dwarfed galaxies. The planet DWARFED GALAXIES. Some planet, huh? I think in the story line, that The Stranger’s planet had laid waste to Overminds, but I can’t be sure of that. Or maybe it was the other way around.
BTW, many years later a similar origin was later given for Galactus, only he was/is the sole survivor of a predecessor universe.
DC’s policy regarding Supes is that he’s a perpetual 29. I dunno about Bats.
I dunno about that, Bryan.
DCU’s condensed “ten-year timeline” between now and the origins of most major heroes would put Supes in his early thirties at a minimum, even ignoring the passage of time since that policy was unofficially implemented around the time Kingdom Come ended. In the Post-Crisis Byrne-written continuity, Clark Kent graduated college at 22 and bummed around America a few months before saving that space plane in Metropolis and assuming the Superman identity.
So, minimally 32, probably around 34.
Bats’ age is more confused since that whole “trained around the world with masters from different fields” timeline is so deliberately vague.
I’ve always assumed Bruce is older than Clark, tho. No cite. Just a feeling.
Superman has to be a minimum of 35. since Clark Kent went to high school with Peter Ross and Currently in the DC universe Pete is
[spoiler] president of the United States [spoiler]
Although I’ve no official data to back me up I think that late 30’s, early 40’s feels right for Batman. It gives him time for the experience he’s got but leaves him young enough that he’s still fighting fit.
Given the recent relaunch of the X-books, it’ll probably only be a month or two before they bring these two jokers back.
I really wish they would bring back Gomi and the two lobsters, quite possibly the lamest comic book characters ever.
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]
First off, the Stranger debuted several years earlier, in a Lee/Kirby issue of X0Men circa 1965. Secondly, his origin has been given differently nearly every time he has appeared. In Silver Surfer 12 (Englehart series), it was revealed by Galactus that he made all of these stories up on the spot, that he was intended to fill the vacant fourth spot of the Living Tribunal but passed on it. A planet can’t “dwarf galaxies”; celestial bodies over a certain mass collapse in on themselves.
Isn’t the Gray Man a DC character, from the “BwaHaHa” era of the Justice League?
Sorry, dude, but we’re talking “comic book” science. Those cumbersome real world physics rule just don’t apply. You want to pick on that, and not that it’s not possible to “channel” all the life energies of a planet into one person? Bleaagh!
I knew that, and I’m also reasonably sure another made-up story was that four early astronauts were exposed to radiation and gained, um, “fantastic” powers as a result.
I don’t know about post-Crisis Superman, but pre-Crisis his birthdate was always given as “February 29, on the leap year 36-39 years prior to the date when the fan letter asked the question”.
Superman and Batman are probably both in their late 30’s. Shortly after he was killed by Doomsday, Clark Kent was listed among the missing, and his bio listed him as 34 years old. That was roughly 15 years ago real time, which would translate to roughly four or five years DC time. In addition Clark graduated with Pete Ross, who was elected vice-president a couple of years ago. This makes him, and consequently Clark, at a bare minimum, 37-38.
Batman graduated from college and spent several years traveling the East training with the great martial arts masters. Batman became Dick Grayson’s guardian when he was 12 or 13, and this was at least three or four years into his Batman career (Dick doesn’t appear in Year One or Year Two). Dick has graduated from college and has been on his own as Nightwing for a couple of years.
Assume that Bruce graduates at 22, finishes his martial arts training and begins his career as Batman at 25. He becomes Dick’s guardian at around 27, early in year three, with Dick about 13. Dick graduates at 22 and becomes Nightwing, which he’s been for at least a couple of years, so add another 11 years to Bruce’s age and you get 38.
Batman and Superman both came onto the scene at about the same time, so assuming they’re both about the same age, I’d put both at just under forty.
There are other clues. Batman and Superman were both in the first incarnation of the Justice League (though not charter members), along with the Barry Allen Flash. Wally West was about 9 at that time (the age when he first got his powers) and is now in his early 20’s, call that 12 or 13 years. Asssuming an age of about 25 for Bats and Supes, at that time, that fits with the idea that they’re just under 40.
However, if you look at Black Canary and Hawkgirl, their timelines seem to indicate that the first Justice league was closer to 20 years ago. The current Black Canary is in her late teens/early 20’s, and is the daughter of the original. The current Hawkgirl is also in her late teens, and is the reincarnation of the Silver Age Hawkgirl. This would imply that it’s been 20 years since the originals were in the first Justice League. Using those clues, Batman and Superman would be in their early 40’s.
One last clue is their hair. Dark haired men in comics who are in their forties or later have gray hair at their temples. This means that Superman and Batman cannot yet be forty.
So my official estimate is 38, give or take a year.
One former Superman editor (Mike Gold?) said that to him, Superman was an eternal 29 and Batman was always 35.
…Gray Man?
Marvel has a Purple Man, who after a bath in neurogenic chemicals turned purple, but had pheremones that forced people to obey his verbal commands. He died, after being used in a planetary takeover bid by Dr. Doom.
Marvel also has a Gray Gargoyle, a guy who had a spot on his hand that could turn anything he touched to stone. I don’t know what happened to him.
Never heard of a Gray Man, though.
The Gray Man is a DC character, an agent of the Lords Of Order who collected people’s dream essences, but he went mad from the strain and fought the Justice League International. A second Gray Man created by the Lords Of Order helped a mad scientist, Irwin Teasdale, turn several European villages into vampires. Again, the JLI had to step in and stop everyone. This was all during the Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis stint on writing the Justice League comics.
I’m quite sure there is a Gray Man again, as there must always be one, but I’m not sure who it is or what books he’s appeared in lately.
I last saw him in the first JSA Secret Files & Origins comic, which was a prelude to the regular series. He was talking to Wes Dodds, the Sandman, before he (Dodds) killed himself in confrontation with Mordru.
Oh, that’s right. I even have the TPB with that issue in it. I hated how Wesley Dodds, one of my favorite characters, had such an anticlimactic death, and that scene probably kept me from enjoying the TPB more.
In this recent thread Someone explain the Watcher to me, in this post, Ethilrist describes a Marvel “Grey Man.”