Many Origins, Quickly Told: Comic Book Hinterlands, #10

By David Macpherson

 

Every superhero has a reason for them being that way. 

 

This book contains several hundred origins of superheroes. They were scientists inventing potions. They got hit by lightning. They were children seeing their parents killed and swearing vengeance. 

 

We have every type of origin. All are recounted in a fun breezy manner. You will see patterns and tropes and have a good time. 

Comic Book Hinterlands is a monthly zine that explored the strange forgotten landscape of comic book history. Each issue is a stand-alone book.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Macpherson
• Release date: Jul 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201922108

Book preview

Introduction

In the beginning days of superheroes, having origin stories was not necessary. People liked them and they would eventually get their origin told, but it wasn’t necessary. The person was in a costume. The person had crazy powers. Why not just accept it and enjoy the adventure.

But somehow we now expect everyone to have a complex origin story. Sometimes the origin takes several issues to tell. Batman’s origin, back in 1939, was given in several panels. In this day and age, we would never for such brevity.

That is what we are presenting. We are giving you hundreds of origins. They are all short. Perhaps you will see patterns. Perhaps there will be tropes. Maybe you will just see lazy storytelling. How many times can a scientist accidentally take their own potion and become a supergod?

We hope you enjoy this large serving of random origins. We go all over the history of comics. We have heroes from the 1930s on into the present. Many publishers, Characters from DC to Marvel to Image and Charlton, are represented.

No doubt, some of your favorites have been overlooked. There is also one large absence: mutant characters have been left off. We do not have X-Men or MetaHumans (which is DC’s version of mutants). We decided that you did not want to read entry after entry saying, They were born that way. Of course there are many 1940 crime fighters in these pages that say simply, They put on a crazy costume and fought the Nazis. That was our choice to include many of them.

The origin is not the important part of the story. It just gets the tale started. Maybe we have been too fixated on the origin. We should be more accepting and not need explanation and backstory. They are superheroes, and that should be origin enough.

The Origins

A slightly evil scientific organization created him with the hope of making the perfect human. He turned on his creators and then went into outer space. - Adam Warlock

Though he was very young, he had great talent as a pilot. He had an airplane that flapped its wings like a bird. That, apparently, was a very good attribute. -Airboy

He is everyone’s favorite hero. People look up to him. But he is total bupkis. He is an actor and all of his super powers are special effects. He is just a tool for propaganda. -The American

He was stuck in an atom smasher. He was hit by radiation and instead of dying, decided to put on a costume and use these new feelings, new forces. -American Crusader

Scientists are prone to accidentally be exposed to a variety of rays, potions, and waves of radiations. In this case, the scientist was hit by al ray that had the power of a bald eagle embedded in it. This gave him the fighting ability of a bald eagle. -American Eagle

After witnessing a spaceship explode, a man soaked up radiation. From that, the man gained the power of animals. -Animal Man