Hero Profile: Harry Dresden

Closing out October with my favorite fictional wizard.

Let’s see, for October I’ve covered the Lizard (Jekyll and Hyde), Hobgoblin (kind of Goblin), the Ghost, and the Wendigo. I think for this last one I should cover a true-blue wizard. But, I want to try something a little different. Rather than covering a wizard from Marvel or DC, I’ll instead cover my favorite wizard in fiction. No, I’m not talking about Harry Potter, but you’re close. No, this time we’re going to do the hero profile for Chicago’s only practicing wizard, Harry Dresden. Let’s get to it.

I should point out that Harry Dresden’s history is told throughout the Dresden Files novels, with tidbits being sprinkled in across multiple books from Harry’s perspective. So, obviously, some things he thinks about his history in the early books is eventually revealed to be incorrect or distorted by time or emotion. I’ll keep this profile as spoiler free as I can, as I want to inform you about the character and get you to read the books.

Just an average midnight stroll for Chicago's favorite wizard.

Harry Dresden was born to stage magician Malcolm Dresden and his wife, an actual wizard, Margaret LeFay. Within the Dresden Files, wizard is a gender-neutral term, just a FYI.  Harry’s mother died within a few hours of giving birth to him, under mysterious circumstances. Tragic, but I’m sure that point won’t come up again. Malcolm named Harry after his three magician heroes, Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone Jr., and David Copperfield, for a ridiculously long full name of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Somehow, I think that Margaret might have objected to this, just saying. Dresden traveled with his father for most of his early childhood. Malcom was pretty much always working to make ends meet, but he loved what he did and did his best to look after his son as well. Dresden has described this tragically brief time with his father as some of the happiest he’s had in life. This came to an end when he was six, as his father died of an aneurism in his sleep.

Dresden spent the next few years in the foster care system. The next eventful moment in Harry’s life was when he was ten. He was up to do the running long jump during his elementary school’s “Olympics.” For reasons that even Dresden can’t remember, he really wanted to win the blue ribbon for it. He wanted it so bad that his magic first manifested, causing him to jump nearly a dozen feet. He landed badly and sprained his wrist, but he got that damned ribbon and kept it to this day. Right after that first bit of magic, he was adopted by a man called Justin DuMorne.

DuMorne was a wizard and he spent the next several years training Dresden. DuMorne is described to be a tough but fair mentor, the sort to throw baseballs at Dresden to practice making magic shields but rewarding young Harry when he’s able to block successfully. In that time, DuMonre also adopted another magically gifted child, Elaine Mallory. While the two young wizards in training had friction at first, they ultimately became each other’s best friend and “first” everything. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Things were good with DuMorne and Elaine for Harry until he was sixteen.

Paul Blackthorne was the best part of the sucky 2007 TV adaptation.

At that time, he found out that DuMorne was evil and had intended to make him and Elaine his magical enforcers. When Dresden refused to follow along willingly, DuMorne tried to enthrall him with Magic. Dresden ran off, but was chased down by a demon that DuMorne summoned to kill him. Dresden was able to kill the monster by exploding a gas station (not the last time Harry will do that). Dresden sought out and made a deal with a powerful Fae noble, the Lenansidhe (pronounced Len-on-she) to give him a power boost. He then faced off against Justin, killing him.

It’s only after that that Harry learned that there was a governing body to wizards, called the White Council. Justin DeMorne had actually been a member of the group, he was a Warden (wizard cop), but he’d kept that info from Dresden and Elaine in order to better control them. Dresden was pretty much instantly arrested and put on trial. See, wizards have several laws, the most important of which is that one should never use magic to kill. The punishment being execution. Thankfully, a wizard on the council, Ebenezer McCoy, asked for clemency. This meant that McCoy would take over training Dresden, and Dresden would be put under the Doom Of Damocles. It’s a fancy name for Wizard Probation, if Dresden broke another wizard law he’d be executed. He trained under Ebenezer in Hogs Hallow, Missouri for a handful of years, and “cooled off” a bit under the old man’s tutelage. Dresden then quickly became a full member of the White Council, something that was all but unheard of for a wizard his age at the time. Harry spent a few years traveling around the US, before settling in Chicago, Illinois.

He had a couple of jobs in the city before working for Private Investigator Nicholas Christian at Ragged Angel Investigations. Christian’s agency specialized in finding missing kids. Dresden worked for Nick for three years as he worked towards getting his own PI license. His time with Nick was largely uneventful, except for one case. They were hired by the Astor family to find their daughter, Faith. Dresden is able to track the girl down, having used magic to hone in on her, but is then informed that the Astors decided to distort the situation. They claimed that their daughter had been kidnapped by Nick and Dresden, rather than let it get out that their daughter had run away from an emotionally abusive household. Dresden refused to leave the girl to save his hide. He and Nick agree to meet at a bridge and figure things out. Faith distracted Harry for a second getting him to talk about Magic, bit his hand and ran for it. She was almost instantly grabbed by a Troll. Harry is able to get her away from it. The troll, Gogoth, demands that Dresden give her the girl. Dresden distracted it with a bright flash of light from one of his rings and sprinted away.  

Honestly shocked Murphy hasn't shot him more often.

They make back to the other side of the bridge and the two bond a little. Over Harry’s past and Faith’s currently crappy home lives. He does his best to encourage her, and gives her the “things will get better” speech. He grabs her and attempts to cross the bridge one more time. The troll makes another grab at Faith, but Dresden is able to get her away. He fights the monster while Faith ran to meet Nick. He gets some back up from a lady cop that he’d passed earlier. The two are able to distract the troll long enough for Dresden to chop into it with its own massive cleaver. The Troll dies, but releases thousands of mini trolls from the wound. Hydra eat your heart out, I guess.

Afterwards, the cop, whom took that bit of insanity rather well, attempts to figure out what the hell just happened. Officer Murphy is kept from arresting Dresden and Nick by Faith telling her what happened. Murphy takes Faith back home while Dresden and Nick marvel over surviving that one.

This entire story is from the short story “Restoration of Faith” which is available for free on Jim Butcher’s website.

In the years since saving Faith and becoming a true blue PI, Harry Dresden has had a very active life. He’s battled a warlock (evil wizard) that was pushing a magic drug, several varieties of werewolves, a vengeful ghost, the local vampire queen, several powerful nobles in the Fey courts, and Fallen Angels. And that’s just in the first five books. And he's always battling his eternal enemy, Rent.

Harry Dresden as a wizard has magic powers. He’s unique in his universe in that he’s unusually powerful for a wizard his age. He can throw around more magical power than many wizards twice his or even thrice his age. He utilizes a number of tools to help focus his powers and use them efficiently. His primary weapons are his blasting rod and wizard staff. The rod is basically a magic wand, but is designed to focus and aim his fire magic. His staff is more versatile, allowing him to work more spells through it but with less power. He also keeps a set of rings on his hands that he charges up with kinetic energy. Basically, ever time he moves his arm the ring will store some of the kinetic energy of the movement. It takes a while to build up, but when he unleashes the charge on his ring, he can slam a person through a wall. As for his defenses, he’s got his beloved leather duster. The old west style coat is covered in runes and spells to make it tear, cut and bulletproof. And also, more resistant to magic attacks. He also wears a charm bracelet on his left wrist. It has several small kite shield-like charms on it. By channeling his power through it, he can create a barrier around himself to protect himself from projectiles. He later upgrades it to include protecting him from heat and other forms of energy, after one of his enemies got clever.

Dresden is also assisted on most of his adventures by a spirit of intellect he dubbed Bob. Bob is kind of the wizard equivalent of a computer, as the spirit has centuries of knowledge on the art of magic stored within him. Bob is housed in a rune covered skull. His “real” body is as a cloud of orange energy. Dresden pays him in trashy romance novels, as the skull is the horniest disembodied spirit you’ll ever meet. He’s also often backed up by Lieutenant Karrin Murphy. The two have a very rocky relationship at first, due to Dresden trying to keep Murphy in the dark about the monsters and dark wizards that stalk the streets and Murphy’s refusal to just let Dresden handle things. She’s a skilled police officer, a crack shot, and a master of Judo. She’s at one point described as Tiny but Fierce by a Paladin. She’s only about five foot nothing.

The Story that started it all. 

The Dresden Files, at the time of writing this, consists of fifteen novels with novel sixteen nearly complete, and two books of short stories. When the story begins, Dresden is a fairly generic PI character, just with the added quirk of being a practicing wizard. As the novels continue, he grows into more of a traditional hero, using his magical abilities to protect Chicagoans from the magical forces that traditionally prey upon them. And a few more mundane monsters, like the local crime boss, Gentleman Johnny Marcone.

I love Harry Dresden as a character. He’s a lot like Spider-Man, in that he’s been kicked around by life a lot and yet still does his damnedest to help everyone he can. He’s also snarky and sarcastic, which are two character-traits that I love. I also love how he describes the use of Magic. For Harry, it’s like a religious experience to use magic. At least once a book he has a very eloquent speech as to how Magic, this cosmic force of nature, is the most wonderful thing in the world and how he’s humbled about using this power. He’s not a perfect character, either. As he’s often gets himself into trouble by trying to do everything himself, and that he’s got a sense of chivalry so strong that for a while the best way to hurt him is to either threaten a woman in his vicinity, or be a woman that threatens him. Which is particularly bad for Harry as at least three of his most dangerous enemies are women. That all said, he always tries his damnedest to protect people, to use magic wisely, and to make the world a safer place. That why I thought he deserved a Hero Profile on his birthday. Have a good night everybody.

Just curious folks, did you enjoy this non-superhero hero profile? Should I do more on my favorite characters from books and other media? Let me know in the comments. 

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Villain Profile: Wendigo

There are occasions where death is preferable to survival.

We’ve done the Jekyll and Hyde style Lizard and the English demon inspired Hobgoblin, up next let’s dive into some Native American mythology. The Wendigo is a monster from Algonquian-speaking folklore. Legend goes that a person would be transformed into a Wendigo if they performed that most egregious of acts, cannibalism. Either the act itself, or a spirit drawn to a human that performed it, would cause a person to be transformed into a being of avarice, a monster that craved human flesh. Such a creature just screams comic book villain, doesn’t it? Well, even if it doesn’t, it does fit in with my Halloween themed posts. You don’t get much “Halloweenier” than a monster that eats human flesh. Let’s get to it.

Think a hotdog has enough human meat in it to
distract it?

As stated above, the Wendigo is a monster from Native American folklore, specifically the Algonquian speaking tribes of what is now Canada and the North Eastern US. In the Marvel Universe, a person could be afflicted by the curse if they ingested human in specific forests in Northern Canada. It’s believed the curse was created by an unspecified Northern God in an effort to deter people from literally eating each other. Hm… I feel like there was a better way of going about that. Just saying. Any person infected by the curse would turn into the Wendigo, becoming superhumanly strong, virtually indestructible, and covered in fur and sharp horns. The cursed individual would then roam the Canadian wilderness, eating humans until they’re either killed or the curse is somehow passed on. In the Marvel Universe, it remained an unstoppable predator of myth until the mid70s, when the latest victim of the curse crossed paths with the Jade Giant, thee Incredible Hulk.

The Hulk had been rampagining across the Canadian Wilderness in an attempt to find his/Banners love, Betty Talbot. He was having trouble accepting that Betty had recently gotten married. Don’t be that guy, Bruce, don’t be that guy. In his travels he was attacked by a group of hunters, whom he easily beat the snot out of. His fight was interrupted by a girl named Marie that rather insanely attacked him. She’d mistaken him for the Wendigo, the monster that killed her brother. Moved by the girl’s sorrow, The Hulk decided to help her by hunting the beast that killed her brother.

The Hulk searches for the beast, but it finds him first. He’d stumbled across the Wendigo just before it fed on its next victim. The Hulk and The Wendigo brawl, while they’re reasonably close in strength, The Hulk is knocked off the side of a cliff, and the Wendigo throws the guy he’d just about eaten after the Hulk in fury. Hulk saves the victim and takes him back to Marie, believing him to be her brother.

As it turns out, no this was not her brother, Paul. It’s instead Paul’s friend, Georges. Georges after recovering explains that he, Paul and their friend Henri had been out hunting when they were attacked by wolves and driven into a cave. Henri died, and the other two, left without other options, ate his remains to try and survive. This opened him to the curse and turned him into the Wendigo. The Hulk, goes after the Wendigo again and tries to reach Paul. While he did reach Paul for a moment, the beast consumed his mind during their fight. The Wendigo leapt away.

You know, considering its diet, I'm amazed the Wendigo can
keep its white fur so clean.

The Wendigo would come across and battle the Hulk on several occasions. Marie and Georges, wanting to save Paul, decided to try and transfer the curse to the Hulk. They tranquilize the Hulk, summon the Wendigo and begin a ritual to transfer the curse from one to the other. They’re stopped when the Hulk suddenly awakens, and the matter made worse when Wolverine showed up. Logan had been recruited to take care of the Hulk by the Canadian Government. The three savages’ brawl, while Georges and Marie tried to find a way to salvage the situation. Ultimately, Georges completed the transfer ritual, but took the curse into himself, becoming the next Wendigo.

Georges as the Wendigo was eventually tracked down by Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and members of Alpha Flight. Alpha Flight is Canada’s X-Men/Avengers. They’re able to subdue The Wendigo long enough for Alpha Flight’s Shaman to cure Georges. But, the curse of the Wendigo is eternal, so while Georges was freed, another person became afflicted. 

The Wendigo Curse continues to pop up to menace civilians and heroes that frequent the Canadian Wilderness. Wolverine, Alpha Flight, and Hulk being the most common individuals to battle this ancient evil.

The Curse of the Wendigo imbues it’s host with a number of supernatural powers. The transformation turns even the meekest of people into an enormous vessel of destruction. The host is superhumanly strong, on par with the incredible Hulk. They’re covered in dense fur, and grow massive horns and claws. The beast is also largely immune to cold, as it’s massive, fur covered body is basically designed to survive in a Canadian blizzard. It’s also superhumanly fast, despite its size, and can recover from traumatic injuries. That includes disembowelment. The transformation also robs your average joe or jane of their overall intelligence and ability to speak. Outside of shrieking WENDIGO at the top of their lungs.

The Wendigo has been used a few times outside of the comics, usually to battle either Bruce Banner’s alter ego or Logan.

It appeared in Wolverine and the X-Men in the episode “Wolverine vs. the Hulk.” In it, Nick Fury “convinced” Wolverine to help him stop a rampaging Hulk. He’s dropped into the Canadian Wilderness and finds his ol’ buddy the Hulk. The two fight for a bit, but when the Hulk calms down enough to revert back to Banner, he reveals that HE’D been dropped off to handle a rampaging monster in Canada for SHIELD. Banner is able to formulate a cure for the “curse” and go after the Wendigo. Imagine their shock when it turns out to be four Wendigo instead of one. They’re able to cure the beasts, only to discover they’re SHIELD agents. Turns out, their transformation was due to a SHIELD attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum. Whoops.

Oh sorry, this is an artist's rendering of a mythological Wendigo.
Imagine thinking one of these stalked the night!

Wendigos made a few appearances in the Disney XD Marvel universe. It first appeared in the episode “Avengers: Impossible” in Avengers Assemble. In it, Impossible Man, an alien with reality warping powers, summoned it as a means of improving an action show He created starring Falcon. The scene is “Scrubbed” by Impossible Man before it can cause any serious damage.

Another Wendigo appeared in “Wendigo Apocalypse” in Hulk and the Agents of SMASH. Hulk and his team/family go to a ski resort for some R&R. The resort is almost immediately overrun by Wendigos. They brawl with several of the beasts, which included a transformed Wolverine. They’re able to defeat the Wendigo’s leader, the Wendigo King, breaking the curse and curing everyone.

It appeared one last time in Ultimate Spider-Man. In “Contest of Champions” a Wendigo is paired with Kraven the Hunter and Molten Man to fight against Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Hulk. Its defeated by Spider-Man making it fall into one of Kraven’s pit traps and then electrified with Spider-Man’s electric web.

A Wendigo is one of several villains seen escaping the Raft in the opening episode of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. It’s a nonspeaking cameo, but I am compelled to give a nod to my favorite Avengers cartoon whenever I can.

The Wendigo as a monster is something that I’ve enjoyed since I learned about this Canadian horror. I mean, it’s a monster that is created by eating human flesh, is insanely creepy and violent, and feels like it should star in many more horror films. As a Marvel Supervillain, it works as for any story that needs a mild horror esthetic. It works as a mirror to the Hulk, as both were unwillingly changed into a rampaging monster. And the fact that it’s an eternal curse that will forever pass on each time the current host is cured means that they can run the gambit on backstories. When anyone can be a Wendigo, all you have to do is orchestrate a situation for them to eat a guy to make it viable. It’s a pretty easy villain to use. 

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Villain Profile: Ghost

This Ghost will get into any machine, for a price.

Well, considering that I just did a goblin, it seems only logical to do ghost as well, right? And not just any ghost, but THE Ghost. While I mentioned this in my Ant Man and the Wasp review, I feel the need to point out again that the Ghost of that movie, Ava Starr, is an original character of that film. While I’ll go into her background in the character section, the bulk of this will be centered on the Ghost of the comics and most of the cartoons, whom is depicted as male. And that’s like the one concrete fact that we know about him. Let’s get to it, shall we?

The Ghost and Crossbones, a match made in hell.

The Ghost is a man who’s past is largely shrouded in mystery. While large parts of it can’t be substantiated, as the people involved besides Ghost are dead and he has claimed to have had his original identity wiped from public record, he has given us an origin story. I’d be willing to bet parts of the tale will either be revealed to be total lies or facts distorted by hate and anger at some point, here’s what he’s said. Back in the day Ghost worked as a programmer and engineer at a rising IT company called Omnisapient. While he doesn’t give his real name, I’m just going to call him Jacob Marley. What? If everyone else is blatantly showing off Christmas stuff in October, I should be allowed a somewhat subtle joke. Jacob impressed his companies board of directors with his prowess with designing advanced tech and his immense intellect. He quickly received multiple promotions before being put on the company’s flagship project, a new processor that could physically change in reaction to its environment. Basically, the processor would become intangible before it could overheat, allowing for rapid cooling. The Ghost Tech, as they dubbed it, caused the company’s stock to skyrocket. Which was good. But the board also grew ever more dependent on Jacob specifically to run and design their tech. Which was bad. After months of exhausting work, I’m reasonably certain with unpaid overtime, Jacob demanded to get some time off. The board was obviously… upset about the idea of Jacob not completing the project ahead of schedule, which would gain them billions, there wasn’t much they could do, now is there?

Just before Jacob left on his vacation, an attractive coworker… ugh, she doesn’t have a name either.  I’ll call her Jenny, because why not? Jenny came onto him and expressed interest in him. Jacob, whom claimed to be introverted and a tech geek before his transformation, was smitten with her almost instantly. He cancelled his vacation and kept working, but spent a lot of time with Jenny during and after work. Well, isn’t that convenient for Jacob, and his bosses. More and more of Jacobs personal life seemed tied to his job, but he didn’t complain as an attractive romantic partner is an incredible stress reliever. Things ended badly, though, as Jenny was killed in an explosion that destroyed her apartment. Gas leak, I’m sure. Jacob, depressed and needing some kind of escape, plugged his brain directly into his Ghost processor. Not sure if that sciences, but belief needs to be suspended with an origin story. Combining his mind with the processor pushed his consciousness into a hyper aware state, and he was able to piece together some things that he’d subconsciously realized that didn’t add up. Jenny, he realized, had been a Honeypot. The board hired her to seduce him and keep him working on their projects. She’d been killed because she’d demanded they give her more money, or she’d go public with what they did. I can imagine only a few things more heartbreaking than realizing just how badly Jacob had been used. The board had surveillance on him, so they realized what he’d discovered. They hired a hitman to take care of him. Hm… I feel like they’re just making more problems for themselves, but what do I know. The hitman set off a bomb in Jacob’s apartment, killing most of his neighbors. Jacob survived as the Ghost tech processor made him intangible as the heat of the explosion heated up the processor.  Nearly dying and discovering how much of his life was a fabrication, Jacob Marley died metaphorically and was reborn as the Ghost.

The Ghost is always trying to stick it to The Man.

Ghost became a hyper paranoid vigilante, hell bent on killing evil corporations. He killed the board of directors, their assassin and then the records of his former life. Sometime later, Ghost was hired by Carrington Pax, one of the head executives of the Roxxon Oil Corporation, to destroy Accutech Research and Development. The tech firm had been developing a beta particle generator, a potential super energy source, but refused to sell it to the oil company. Probably because folks in the Marvel Universe know their oil companies are evil. Roxxon hired Ghost to drive the company into bankruptcy. Thankfully for Accutech, they’d attracted the attention of Tony Stark, whom bought it within days of Ghost making his move.  Ghost attack, to which Tony sent his “bodyguard” Iron Man to stop. The two faced off, and Iron Man was able to beat the specter back. Ghost swore revenge on Tony, believing the corporate goon was more worthy of his ire than the working-class stiff in the suit. Huh.

Tony, fearing an attack by someone that could literally walk through walls, spent the next few weeks optimizing his armor and waiting. Roxxon, worried that their dealings with Ghost might become public, hired another costumed villain, Spymaster, to deal with him. The two fought in a Stark Enterprises building, which ended with Ghost sticking Spymaster in a wall and making him tangible again. Iron Man set up a trap for Ghost who walked right in. They were both in the beta particle generator room, the beta particles interfering with Ghost’s ability to cloak himself or go intangible. There was a ticking clock element with the fight, as the radiation from the Beta particles can be fatal after prolonged exposure. The floor ended up melting, and Ghost fell through. Iron Man only found the burnt remains of his costume, but he knew Ghost was still out there.

Ghost has since gone up against Iron Man several times, as well as other heroes when he takes contract work. He doesn’t seem to care who he fights, he’ll fight anyone that tries to get in his way. He’s since joined the Thunderbolts. It’s kind of like Marvel’s Suicide Squad, a team made up of anti-heroes and villains that work for the government. While not having sought redemption, he seems to be trying to be a better person than he’d once been.

Despite the supernaturally suggestive name, Ghost’s powers are completely tech based. He’s designed and built a special battlesuit that incorporated his original Ghost Tech. This allows him to go intangible and pass through solid objects, or turn himself invisible, but not both at once. He also has incorporated various gadgets to help him hack or reprogram electronics on the fly, and to intercept and tamper with electromagnetic signals. He’s also a crack shot, using a variety of guns and grenades to help with his work. He’s a genius level inventor and computer hacker.

Why's every song about Love, or Drinking too much? Well,
Maybe it's because, everybody's lonely!
Sorry, that's Jukebox the Ghost.

 Ghost has appeared a few times outside of the comics. They seem to tone down the corporate terrorist angle of his character and usually portray him as a highly skillful mercenary. He’s usually an Iron Man villain, but the Ghost’s biggest appearance was up against Ant Man and Wasp in the film bearing their names.

Ghost appeared in a few episodes of Avengers Assemble. He’s introduced in “The Kids Are Alright” in the third season. In the episode, Captain America and Iron Man are working with a pair of Inhuman heroes, Inferno and Ms. Marvel, to handle a few Ultron robots. After that mess was handled, they give the teen heroes a tour of Avengers Tower. Unfortunately, at the same time Ghost attacked to steal Iron Man’s AI Friday. He’s significantly more dangerous as this version had discovered he was an Inhuman and gone through Terrogenesis to unlock his powers. Thankfully for him, his Inhuman powers were a more powerful form of phasing. The Avengers send him packing in the end. He appeared again in “Avengers No More.” He tried to steal tech from the Stark Expo, but is stopped by the new intern, Jane Foster and Thor.

He appeared in Marvel’s Spider-Man. This version is a former Stark Enterprises employee and that’s why he’s got a personal vendetta against Stark. In the episode “Stark Expo” he crashes said expo, phases into Iron Man’s mark 50 armor and starts causing havoc. Iron Mand and Spider-Man force him from the suit, but he steals the suit’s “inter-connectivity” disks, which let him hack all of the other tech at the expo. He’s finally stopped by Peter, whom used the Venom suit to enhance himself enough to over come him.

This Ghost is hunting Pyms.

A new Ghost, Ava Starr, is introduced for Ant Man and the Wasp. She’s portrayed by Hannah John-Kamen. She is the daughter of a former associate of Hank Pym’s, Elihas Starr. She was the one survivor of the quantum explosion at her dad’s lab. She was left in a state of molecular disequilibrium that caused her to phase through solid object, but caused her extreme pain. She was saved by another former Hank Pym colleague Bill Foster who had her join SHIELD. She was trained as an assassin, given a suit to better control her powers, and the codename Ghost. She left SHIELD when she realized they wouldn’t help fix her. She and Bill Foster attempt to steal Hank Pym’s mobile lab to get his Quantum Realm tech to help Ava. They believe that they could use the quantum energy that Hank’s wife, Janet van Dyne, had absorbed over the last thirtyish years to stabilize her. Once Janet is brought out of the Quantum Realm, she uses her energy to partially stabilize Ava. Scott, Hope, Hank and Janet end the film with a mission to gather more quantum energy particles to stabilize Ava further, but the Pym/van Dynes are Blipped out of existence while Scott was in the realm.  Huh, hope Ava was either blipped too or Bill Foster found another way to help her. Just saying.

The Ghost’s biggest strength, I think, is his look. He’s one of the most visually unique villains of Marvel’s roster. The white suit and largely featureless mask make him hard to forget. I think it also helps that, because he doesn’t have a super specific or well know origin means that he can be whatever a story needs him to be. Sure, that’s true of most characters, but the more popular a character the more you do really need to stick to certain plot beats, if you don’t want to piss off fans. If you want to write a Batman story, he needs to be a billionaire with dead parents. You want to write a story with Magento, you’ll need to include that he’s a survivor of a war and an incredibly angry but charismatic leader. There are no such necessities for Ghost. You need a generic psycho with weird powers? He can do that. Need a skilled mercenary that will keep hounding a target? He can do that. Need him to be a tragic victim of circumstance, and be a woman? She can do it. Plus, his powers are kind of kick ass. Phasing plus invisibility are kind of the perfect combo for a mercenary or assassin. I wonder how he’d handle going up against the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde? It’d be an interesting fight, for sure. And that’s all I have to say about that. 

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Villain Profile: Hobgoblin

There's a new Goblin in town.

So last time we covered Doctor Connors and the Lizard, a Jekyll and Hyde style character where the kindly scientist is transformed into an unstable, unstoppable monster. That’s a fairly standard background story for horror monsters and mad scientist turned monsters. Next, let’s talk about another staple of the Halloween season, a Goblin, a Hobgoblin specifically.

Let’s flashback to 1973. That July, the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, had done the unthinkable and caused the death of Peter Parker’s long-time girlfriend Gwen Stacey. In the ensuing battle, despite being enraged by his nemesis’ actions, Peter didn’t end up killing the psychopath. Norman accidentally killed himself when he attempted to impale Peter from behind with his Goblin Glider. This marked the end of one of Peter’s happiest relationships, which is obviously depressing, but also his long-standing feud with Norman. Unfortunately for Peter, while Norman remained dead for several decades, there are never a shortage of copycat villains in the comic universes. And while there were a few heirs to the Green Goblin legacy, including Peter’s friend and Norman’s son Harry Osborn, I’d argue none was as effective as the villain that appeared ten years after ol’ Gobby’s death, the Hobgoblin.

He does look good on that glider.

I should point out most of the background I’m going to go into didn’t come up until several years after the Hobgoblin’s first appearance. According to his creators, Roger Stern, Mike Zeck and John Romita Jr., they wrote and introduced the character of the Hobgoblin and didn’t have a single idea of who would ultimately be behind the rubber mask. There were a few possible identities, which included a name you might recognize, Ned Leeds, but it wasn’t until 1997 that it was officially revealed to be a man named Roderick Kingsley was the true Hobgoblin. Let’s get into that, now that I’ve had three paragraphs of preamble.

Roderick Kingsley began his career as a fashion designing multi-millionaire. While he presented a kindlier face to the world, like a lot of millionaires in the Marvel universe… and real life if I’m being honest, he harbored a much darker personality behind closed doors. Kingsley had ties to organized crime, which he used to increase his business through corporate espionage and unethical deals. He was also the kind of jerk that strong armed his timid twin Daniel into doing the day-to-day company work. We’ll get back to that point in a minute. Kingsley made a few enemies due to his dealings, the one that started the ball rolling on his fall to supervillainy was a woman named Narda Ravanna. She was a rival designer that he’d ruined that took up the costume criminal identity of Belladonna. She tried to kill him a few times, but he was saved by Spider-Man both times. These incidents made Kingsley begin to search for… alternative means of protecting himself. One of his minions, a fella named George Hill, stumbled upon a solution. He found one of Norman Osborn’s secret lairs, which included all of his Goblin Gear and a cache of weaponry. Kingsley killed Hill and began looking over his new collection of toys.

Kingsley familiarized himself with the gear and some of the data that Osborn kept there. He decided that, since all other previous Green Goblins had (total of 3 at the time, I believe) had been driven insane, he decided to make a new identity model after the original Goblin. He created the orange and yellow costume and the alias of The Hobgoblin. His initial scheme was to use blackmail files that Osborn had compiled to get his hands on Oscorp. He was thwarted by Spider-Man on this and a few other minor crimes. Realizing that he couldn’t battle Spider-Man effectively as he was, Kingsley began trying to recreate the strength enhancing formula that Norman stole from his colleague Mendel Stromm. He eventually was able to perfect the formula. Rather than immediately take it himself, Kingsley did the smart thing and test it on someone else first. He used a mind control device he stole from a former employee and the formula to turn a small-time criminal Lefty Donovan into a Hobgoblin that could take a punch from Spider-Man and send the web-head flying with one of his own. Donovan proved to be a competent opponent for Spider-Man, so Kingsley killed him by forcing the Goblin Glider to crash. He took a hit of the gas himself, and becomes a physical match for Spider-Man.

Did he buy a Spider-Man suit just to rip in half? I don't get
rich people.

Despite his newfound power, Kingsley was still regularly defeated by Spider-Man and got onto the $%^& list of some of New York’s powerful elite, including the Kingpin. In order to keep his identity a secret, Kingsley kidnapped Ned Leeds, a reporter investigating him and brainwashed him into believing he was the Hobgoblin. He used Ned as a decoy for a while, and then had him assassinated so he could retire. He returned from retirement a few years later, to kill the current Hobgoblin, Jason Macendale, to protect his identity and remove an unworthy successor. He then captured Betty Brant, a former Parker love interest and current investigator into the Hobgoblin case. He tried to kill Peter, but in the ensuing battle, his brother Daniel is captured and Roderick is unmasked. See, in order to try to keep his identity a secret, Roderick would often send his twin into locals he’d attack as the Hobgoblin in order to protect his identity. Yes, this was a retcon in order to explain how Kingsley could be the Hobgoblin when he was shown to be in places that the Hobgoblin attacked. Roderick is arrested, Ned is posthumously cleared, and all is made right in the world. For a while anyway.

Roderick Kingsley has since escaped prison and continued to fight Peter Parker. He’s formed a bitter hatred with the returned Norman Osborn, as they both feel the other is the lesser Goblin. More recently, Roderick has gotten into the criminal arms dealing. He’d get his hands on the gear of deceased or incarcerated villains and then rented the gear and names to other would-be villains for a hefty fee. The dude is one hell of a business man.

Initially, Roderick Kingsley had no superhuman powers, but was an intelligent, cunning sociopath with an insane amount of luck. He had the knowhow to learn how to use all of Norman’s old gear and to upgrade them as he went along. He wears bulletproff mail along with an overlapping tunic, cape and cowl. He also wears an incredibly expressive rubber yellow mask to hide his identity. His main weaponry includes the incredibly useful Goblin Glider, concussive and incendiary bombs in the shape of Jack O’Lanterns, smoke and gas grenades, and bat shaped throwing knives. He later figured out how to recreate and improve the Mendel Stromm strength formula to give him superhuman strength, reflexes and stamina. He also improved it to remove the insanity inducing effects of the serum.  

The Hobgoblin identity has only been used a handful of times outside of the comics. I imagine that this is due to the similarities to the Green Goblin, and the other Goblin’s overwhelming popularity means that ol’ Hobgobby is left waiting. Interestingly, Roderick Kingsley has only been used once outside of the comics.

Roderick Kingsley appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man’s second season episode “Gangland.” In this version he’s the owner of a perfume factory and also African American. He’s one of several criminal types, including Doc Ock, Tombstone and Silver Sable, bidding on the blueprints for Rhino’s impenetrable skin. He wins the bid, but this all turns out to be an attempt by Hammerhead to set himself up as the new Big Man of Crime and eliminate his competition. Kingsley escaped unscathed. Showrunners had revealed that had the series gotten a third season, Kingsley would have returned and taken up the Goblin mantle.

The supervillain equivalent of showing up to a party in
almost the same outfit.

The Hobgoblin appeared in several episodes of Spider-Man the Animated Series. He’s voiced by Mark Hamill. Interestingly, in this continuity, he’s the first Goblin, appearing a full two seasons before Norman donned that Goblin mask. I’d read somewhere that this was due to insistence from Fox to include Hobgoblin for toy sales or some such nonsense. He appeared in the Hobgoblin two parter. He’s initially hired by Norman Osborn, irony, to assassinate Wilson Fisk. The Kingpin had recently gained control of Oscorp and regularly threatened Norman to get his way. He makes an attempt on Fisk, but is thwarted by Spider-Man. He makes several other appearances in The Mutant Agenda, Mutants Revenge, Goblin War, and Spider Wars Part 1. He’s also referenced in Enter The Green Goblin, where Norman revealed that he’d found the Hobgoblin’s cache of gear in his lab after an accident and remodeled it for his use. His identity is finally revealed in Goblin War. They used Jason Macendale as the real identity of the Hobgoblin. His identity is only revealed when his fiancé and former Peter Parker romantic interest Felicia Hardy stumbled upon the Goblin gear. I only bring him up in this as the Hobgoblin has only a few appearances, and I don’t see myself going back and doing a Jason Macendale version ever.

As far as villain’s go, Kingsley is probably just in the Okay range. The mystery of who the Hobgoblin was and his antics were good at the time, but the return of Norman Osborn a few years later pretty much solidified him as one of Spider-Man’s lesser enemies. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Kingsley, and against another hero he’d stand out great, but when you’re being compared to the Green Goblin, it’s hard to measure up. I will say he’s probably one of the most visually distinctive villains, though. I can think of only a handful of characters that would think to use orange and yellow as their primary colors. And his more recent plan as being a super-villain identity broker is beyond brilliant. Think about it, you supply the tech and name for some nobody with delusions of grandeur, collect a huge fee, and yet you’re still physically strong enough to kick their asses if they step out of line. Or hit the kill switch on their tech. I’ll be honest, were I a supervillain, this is the sort of racket I’d like to get in on. So yeah, he’s a Good Goblin forced down to an Okay Goblin by the Green Goblin.  

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Villain Profile: The Lizard

All he wanted was a hand, which he got, but then he also got a tail and scales and it just kind of spiraled off from there.

Given that it’s the month of Halloween, let’s talk about a few characters that are a bit more horrific than others, shall we?

Our next character is one of the staples of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, Dr. Curt Connors aka the Lizard. Connors shares traits with Dr. Kirk Langstrom and Dr. Henry Jekyll, in that they’re all brilliant scientists that took their research just a little too far, discovered a formula that transformed them into horrific monsters, and ended up ruining their lives. Smart guys have a habit of doing incredibly dumb things when push comes to shove. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to it, shall we?  

He smells blood in the water.

Dr. Curtis “Curt” Connors (Stan Lee and Steven Ditko loved alliteration) began his comic career as a surgeon for the US Army. He earned a name for himself by performing several emergency surgeries on the battlefield. This career ended prematurely and terribly as an explosion in the field severely damaged his right arm, which required the limb to be amputated. After his honorable discharge, Connors became obsessed with discovering how certain species of lizard’s regenerate and began researching the phenomenon. In his home in the Florida Everglades, he was able to synthesize a serum from reptile DNA. Connors used it to regenerate the limb of a rabbit, got really excited and tried it on himself. Curt, buddy, in general it’s smart to perform a few more tests before leaping to human testing. Just saying.

At first, the serum worked perfectly. He quickly grew a new right arm. But there were a few unfortunate side effects. Namely that the serum continued to rewrite his DNA, turning him into a colossal lizard-man. In this form Connors became a berserk beast that hunted on the everglades. Peter Parker found out about the Floridian lizard man when he was challenged by Spider-Man hate enthusiast J. Jonah Jameson to get pics of the beast. He traveled to Florida, and learned about Connors, his family, and what caused the researcher to go full beast. As Spider-Man, Peter was able to develop an antidote for Connors, tracked the Lizard, fought and cured the good doctor. Unfortunately, he lost his new arm after the formula was purged from his system. He briefly reverted to Lizard form a short time later, but was saved by an old friend and colleague Professor Charles Xavier and his X-Men. Ice Man cooled the Lizard so much that the Lizard went into hibernation long enough for the science types on the team to make another cure.

The almost human face of the movie version is very
uncanny valley.

After two transformations into a rampaging Lizard, Connors decided he needed a change of scenery. Connors and his family relocated to New York City… I can think of no worse city for someone that has turned into a horrible monster to live in. Just saying. Connor’s quickly ingratiated himself with Spider-Man, often helping Spider-Man developing new tech to combat his various foes. Connors did things like develop a cure for Peter’s Aunt May when she was dying of radiation poisoning from an emergency blood transfusion that Peter gave her, and to an acid to eat through Rhino’s nearly impenetrable hide. He had to earn his keep somehow, as it quickly became clear that Connors was always just one bad day away from transforming into the Lizard again. Turns out, high stress and/or foreign chemicals can force Connors to mutate again. Peter would then have to whip up a new cure and turn Connors back again. Rinse and repeat. As time passed, the Lizard’s intellect seemed to increase. He eventually developed a mind on par with his human form, and began plotting to overthrow humanity by either making a new race of Lizard people, either from scratch or from transforming the global population into Lizards. He is always stopped by Peter and his amazing friends.

Dr. Curtis Connors was once a gifted surgeon, but the lost of his right hand made that career impossible to maintain. He’s since used his high intelligence to become an expert in genetics, biochemistry, herpetology (study of reptiles, amphibians, and caecilians) and physics. As the Lizard, Connors gets superhuman strength, speed, agility and reflexes. He also gains razor sharp claws and fangs, and a massive, powerful tail. He can also cling to walls like a gecko. His thick scales make him highly resistant to damage, and his superhuman regeneration means that he’ll quickly get over hits that land. He seems to be able to control other reptiles within a mile of himself. This is either due to pheromones or a form of limited telepathy, it seems to vary from story to story. The Lizard’s intelligence also varies. At times he’s as dumb as a beast, other times he’s as smart a human and is able to speak and reason. He’s almost never as smart as he is as Connors, but tends to steal his human form’s research to further the Lizards ends.

The Lizard’s appearance varies from story to story, but, in general his body seems to be based on monitor lizards or iguanas. So massive, scaly, and occasionally with a sort of fringe on his head. Others will mix in more human elements to make the Lizard seem more uncanny and creepy.

Dr. Connors and the Lizard are two of Spider-Man’s more recurring friend and foe respectively. Connors is often viewed as a mentor to Peter, which makes his unwilling transformations all the more tragic.

It all stemmed from a simple, all consuming desire to be whole
again.

Connors and the Lizard appeared several times in Spider-Man: TAS. He was actually the first villain of the series, appearing in the first episode Night of the Lizard. In it, the college aged Peter Parker discovers that his science teacher was transformed into a monstrous Lizard due to an experiment gone wrong. This Lizard is smart enough to use Connors technology to develop his usual plan to turn the world into Lizards. The Lizard kidnaps his/Connor’s wife, Margaret, to be the first of his new race of Lizard people. Spider-Man swings in and saves the day. Connors is a supporting character for the rest of the series, appearing in Tablet of Time, The Ravages of Time, The Alien Costume pt. 2, The Final Nightmare, The Return of Kraven, The Lizard King, and all three parts of Secret Wars. In that last entry, Spider-Man and a team of heroes are fighting to save a world that had been taken over by Earth’s villains, as part of a ‘test’ created by a being called the Beyonder. Spider-Man and his allies are almost immediately attacked by the Lizard. They’re able to subdue him and use the alien tech available to them to awaken Connor’s mind in the Lizard’s body. Which must have been weird for the scientist, just saying.

He appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man. He’s a professor at Empire State University, and mentor to Peter and his childhood friend Eddie Brock. He’s introduced in the second episode Interactions, and develops the usual Lizard DNA cocktail that lets him regrow his arm. The formula seems to be thrown out of whack by an attack by Electro. Or it seemed that he only started growing scales and such after getting shocked by the deraigned Max Dillon. The next episode Natural Selection shows him transforming into the Lizard. With the help of Connor’s wife, Martha Connors, Eddie Brock and Gwen Stacy, they’re able to hit the Lizard with the cure to turn him back into Connors. The Connors remain as support characters for the rest of the series. That is until a number of Spider-Man related accidence, the loss of the Venom Symbiote, Venom stealing a vial of “gene cleaser” a perfected form of Curt’s Lizard cure, and such causes the Connors to lose control of their lab to another scientist Miles Warren. The Connors then move to Florida.

It's amazing how often Peter finds himself between a
Rock and a Hard Place. Or in this case between
Claws and Robotic arms.

Curt Connors is introduced as an engineer working for SHIELD in Ultimate Spider-Man. He has both arms for the first season, but loses it in the first season finale when a rampaging Goblin destroys the SHIELD Helicarrier. In the second season episode “The Lizard,” Spider-Man and Connors discover a lab run by Doctor Octopus. There they discover dozens of vials of animal-based formulas, including but not limited to lizard, rhino, scorpion and vulture. Oh, I wonder if these animals will ever come up again? Ugh, that amount of sarcasm actually hurt. Yeah, this is the one time that Connors didn’t develop the Lizard formula himself. Super odd when you think about it. Connors uses the lizard formula, both to regenerate his arm and to help Spider-Man fight off one of Ock’s Octobots. Subsequent injections cause him to go full Lizard. The Lizard, knowing that his time in this form is limited, tracks down Ock to get more serum. Peter follows him and faces off against both the Lizard and Ock, and is able to develop a cure for Connors. Connors is a recurring character for the rest of the series. He transforms into the Lizard again in the episodes The Sinister Six, Stan By Me, Return of the Sinister Six, Lizards, and Return to the Spider-Verse pt. 1. I should note that when he transforms again in Stan By Me, Connors seems to choose to remain the Lizard at the end of the episode and runs off. This “failure” to save Connors, in Peter’s eyes, haunts him until Return of the Sinister Six where they’re able to cure Connors once again.

Curt Connors is a supporting character in the Spider-Man Raimi Trilogy, he’s mentioned in the first film, and is portrayed by Dylan Baker in two and three. In the second film, he introduces Peter to his friend Doctor Octavius, and in the third is the scientist that researches that Symbiote when Peter gives him a sample. The Lizard was on the table to appear in Spider-Man 4, but that never came to be as Sony and Raimi’s relationship broke down.

Both sides of Connors appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man, portrayed by Rhys Ifans. He is a scientist at Oscorp that is researching how to combine Human and Animal DNA to improve health. He worked with Peter’s father, Richard Parker. He and Peter meet around when Peter was bitten by the Spider. Peter discovers his father’s research notes and gives it to Connors. Connors uses it to formulate a working serum. His superior, Dr. Ratha, fires Curt when he refuses to rush human trials. Connors uses a sample of the serum to regrow his arm, but then discovers that Dr. Ratha is going to use the formula at a VA hospital. He chases after Ratha, fully transforming into the Lizard on the way. He causes major damage to the Williamsburg Bridge, which Peter intervenes in. The Lizard escapes and returns to normal in the sewers. Connors works in the sewer, slowly being driven insane by the chemicals and growing obsessed with perfecting humanity with his formula. He and Peter clash in the sewers, where The Lizard finds out Peter’s identity when he finds one of Peter’s camera. He attacks Peter at his school, but is forced to withdrawal when the cops arrive. He then attacks Oscorp in an attempt to spread his formula across the city. Peter and Captain George Stacey are able to stop Connors, curing him, but The Lizard mortally wounds Stacey in the fight. Connors uses his last few seconds with his regrown arm to save Peter from falling. He’s arrested and taken to Beloit Psychiatric Hospital. A mysterious man arrives and asks Connors if he told Peter the truth about his father. He says no, and demands that Peter be left alone. The man disappears in a flash of lightning. No, the identity of this man is never revealed.

Like Mysterio and Scorpion, The Lizard has appeared in nearly every videogame featuring the wall-crawler. Weird.

The Lizard and Connors are two very good Marvel characters. As far as baddies go, he’s one of the most understandable. When you break down his motivations to their base level, he’s just trying to get back something that he lost. His obsession with getting back his right arm leads him to some very dark places, but I think his fall is very understandable. It starts with getting his arm back, leads to perfecting his Lizard form, to spreading his “perfection” across the world. Each step seems reasonable until he finally reaches the world domination phase. There’s a really good scene in The Amazing Spider-Man where we see Rhys’ version of Connors raising his left arm beside a mirror so he can see his “right” arm again. The movie itself is incredibly flawed, but the scene is amazing at showing Connors pain. Or so I think. Connors, like Langstrom and Jekyll, started out trying to improve himself and ended up becoming a monster along the way. It’s rather sad, especially when later versions of the character develop into one of Peter’s various mentors. Do. Not. Become Peter’s mentor, it leads to death, becoming a supervillain, or both. Just saying. We probably won’t see the Lizard again in anything live action for a while, but there’s always hope… so long as Disney and Sony don’t get into another pissing contest. Fingers crossed.

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