So one more article looking at secret origins of super heroes. I did iconic origins and lame as hell one’s, what’s next? How about my five favorite origins? These are origins that may not be as memorable, or as awful, as some others but I just love the story so much. Even if they re-told a million times.
The only rule here is that they can’t be one I mentioned in the other two articles. Oh and it may be these stories have been replaced long ago and that’s all fine and good but these are the stories I always loved.
Big Barda
There a lot of bad ass female’s in the DCU but Barda does not get the respect she deserves as one of them. She was bred on Apokolips to serve Darkseid, and became a member of his Female Furies. But when she met and fell in love with Scott Free she helped him escape the hell of Darkseid and made a life on Earth. Scott Free was, of course, Mister Miracle. Not the most complex of stories, but still a good one.
Firestorm
I just loved Firestorm in the 80’s, before they ruined him but that’s another story. The origin is simple, Ronnie Raymond was trying to impress his girl and went with a group to protest a nuclear power plant. After being made a patsy, he was left there with the designer, Martin Stein. Stein had a long string of failures on life leafing to him being there. When the plan explodes the two fuse into one being. There is lots more, and other versions of the character, but it was a great start to a character sill very active.
Blue Beetle
This is a pretty solid origin, in fact it could have easily been on the list the other day for iconic origins. If one has heard of the character anyway. Dan Garret was a archeologist who found an ancient scarab that turned him into Blue Beetle. Years later, on a mission with friend Ted Kord he was caught in a cave in and passed on the mantle to Ted. What he didn’t pass on was the scarab, so to keep Dan’s promise Ted worked out and used the technology at his disposal to be an all new Beetle. Then later came Jamie Reyes, but that’s another story.
Cyborg
Of the four new characters introduced with “The New Teen Titans” the only one who’s backstory I liked was Cyborg. Raven and Starfire’s story was so confusing to me, back then anyway. Cyborg was pretty relatable. He grew up with two loving, yet neglectful, parents who pushed education more than anything else. Victor Stone rebelled and pushed back, as most teens do. One day when visiting his parents he walked into see his father’s experiment had turned into a disaster. A creature from another dimension killed his mother and started to destroy Vic’s body before his father finally got rid of it. Victor survived with cybernetic implants and..the rest his history.
Robin/Nightwing
You gotta give them credit, for not just doing a blatant copy of Batman with Dick Grayson. The same way Speedy was a copy of Green Arrow and Kid Flash was a blatant copy of Flash. I mean yeah, Dick and Bruce have dead parents in common but that’s where the similarities end. Before his parents were killed Bruce was just a rich kid. Dick Grayson was a trained and skilled acrobat. And the reason his parents were killed was very different, as it involved a mobster trying to extort money from the circus. From the get go he was a lighter character, course that was the point. This is probably one reason why he has endured years later, under the guise of Nightwing of course. He was one of the few characters who not only got to grow up, but stayed grown up. Flashback’s aside he was never ever Robin again which is kinda remarkable.
I should talk about team’s, and villains. Maybe I will down the line. Hey, I just realized that I talked a lot about the Bat -Man family in the last three articles. It’s almost as if there was a big anniversary looming or something.
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