Superman Through the Ages! Forum

A "Mopee" tale is a story where some status-quo shaking revelation is disclosed, usually recontextualizing things important to a character in a way that profoundly misses the point. Furthermore, not only does it do this, but this change is NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN, usually because everyone in the universe decides to have collective amnesia about the whole thing, and as a result of reader rejection and editorial embarassment, the entire story is just quietly dropped and never mentioned again. The name comes from a FLASH story where it was revealed that a magical elf, Mopee, is in fact REALLY responsible for the Flash's superspeed.

It's important to remember that a Mopee story is one that is centered on a studding reveal, that we had it "wrong" all along, and this story is going to tell it like it is (ironic, since it is usually never mentioned again). Events like, for instance, Krypto and Superboy communicating with telepathy, Daredevil using sophisticated electronic equipment in his cowl and a "snooper scope" microphone in his billy club in DAREDEVIL #8 ("The Stiltman Cometh!"), or Don Blake building a fully fuctional robot, for instance, do not a Mopee story make.

The Simpsons have had many Mopee stories: the revalation that Principal Skinner was in reality Armin Tenzarian, standing in for the REAL Skinner, or the idea that Bart Simpson had a warped evil twin named Hugo.

Incidentally, Mopee did a hilarous cameo in an eighties issue of AMBUSH BUG, where he talks about how much continuity purists hate him (you got that right - I hate that little spit SO MUCH), and he goes into all the other origins that he's responsible for...

Superman, perhaps because his story is downright folkloric, has suffered the indiginity of the most Mopee tales of nearly any character. My GOD, has he ever. His title sometimes reads like a Mopee graveyard:

ACTION COMICS #368 (1968) "100 Years--Lost, Strayed, or Stolen" has Superman revealed to have lived an entire life in a slipstream dimension, before being youthened and sent back to Earth (what Beppo the Super-Monkey, who stowed away on the rocket, was doing I'll never know).

SUPERMAN #137 (1961) "reveals" that Superman's rocket was duplicated by an energy ray, creating an antisocial evil twin, Super-Menace that followed Superman all through his entire life, and finally had a showdown with an adult Superman. Apparently, something as important as Superman having AN EVIL TWIN THAT FOLLOWED HIM HIS WHOLE FRICKIN LIFE was not important enough to mention again. Alas, it may be possible that Super-Menace is canon: a poster in the SUPERMAN SOURCEBOOK shows the precise moment that Super-Menace was created.

Everybody knows that Marty Pasko story, "The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis!" that has Superman use his glasses to magnify his hypnotic ability, which is why the Clark Kent disguise is so effective. It also has Superman hypnotize AN ENTIRE CITY, a feat he's thankfully never duplicated.

SUPERMAN #205 (1968) 'The Man Who Destroyed Krypton" is a Mopee story as it features the SHOCKING revalation that Jor-El was WRONG, and that Krypton wasn't going to explode...but a little while later, a space pirate named Black Zero launched a fusion bomb that made sure it did, in order to prevent Krypton's space program from being a threat to his fellow pirates. In other words, it turned Jor-El into a crackpot instead of a wise visionary, and made Krypton's destruction not a senseless waste, but a vicious, violent act with a definite point of origin.

Arguably the worst Mopee in history, SUPERBOY #158 (1969) has Superboy discover his parents, Jor-El and Lara, were alive in space in these glass sarcophagi. Definining exactly why this story is a terrible idea and thematically wrong is difficult, the same reason a question like "Why is Hitler bad?" is hard to answer: where to even begin. Okay, here's a shot: the reason this is an awful idea is the sacrifice of Superman's parents was a tragedy that really defines Superman's heroism and who he is. Superman's parents died, PERIOD. This is a reversal that makes a lot of what we know about Superman no longer true. Plus, shouldn't Superman be trying to cure Mom and Dad?

The Weisenger Age was full of Superman tales that have, as a central figure, a Superman-esque hero that lives in another dimension, such as Mighty Man and Mighty Maid, Hyperman from Oceania, etc. These count as Mopees for two reasons: their central conceit is that Superman finds an ally with all his powers somewhere else in the universe. And, barring endings where said hero dies at the end, the character's never mentioned again. I mean, wouldn't Superman have a guy with powers like that on speed-dial here? People don't often place Vartox in this tradition with Mighty Maid, but arguably, Vartox was in the same category as these types: heroes from other planets, except Vartox stuck around. If somebody really wanted to, in some demented Post-Crisis/Post-Whatever tale, they could easily establish all these tales featured Vartox instead of their original guest protagonists.

Even Supergirl has gotten an arguably "Mopee" story: ADVENTURE COMICS #267, where she was invited to join the Legion of Super-Heroes by the CHILDREN of the Legionnaires that Superboy knew. Since the details of that story (Kara being aged by Red Kryptonite) are mentioned again on other occasions, it may not qualify as a mopee, but the idea that the Legionnaires children recruit Supergirl arguably recontextualizes their entire relationship...and it was never mentioned again.

We discussed that Superboy tale a bit on the Silver Age thread - it's a doozy.  But one mitigating factor - it's edited by Boltinoff, not Weisinger.  

There's one other tale I'd nominate for an "anti-Mopee".  This is, for lack of a better term, a tale that includes an intriguing new twist on the mythos that was just never picked up on by succeeding writers/editors, not due to embarassment but just oversight.

I have to give Aldous credit, as I'm pretty sure he's the one who pointed it out to me, and led me to seek it out.

It's the story from World's Finest #158 (Jun. 1966) called "The Invulnerable Super Enemy" by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan, & George Klein (the Silver Age super-team supreme IMO).  It is revealed in this story that there was another Brainiac, a "good" version called "Brainiac A".  He was actually the first version of Brainiac, who travels the universe using his shrinking ray to capture criminals.  There's a tantalizing tease at the end of this story, wondering what would happen should the 2 Brainiacs ever meet, but it never happened.

Unfortunately, this was one of Hamilton's last DC stories - I think he did only one more after this one - and later writers never picked up on this.  After Otto Binder's initial efforts, it was Hamilton IMO who expanded the SA Superman mythos more than any other, and this innovation was his parting gift to us.

To this Hall of Shame I would add Pasko's "Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis" (http://nightwing.supermanfan.net/oddities/mesmerizer1.htm) with its "revelation" that Clark Kent's glasses make him look like John Chancellor (never mentioned again, thank Rao).

And, though it's nearly off-topic, there's that World's Finest 223 tale where we "learn" Bruce Wayne had an older brother, Thomas Wayne, Jr.

I think "Mopee" was probably Bob Haney's middle name.

The brother with the brain damage in a car accident that was shoved into some crazy house? I always hate how much that made the Waynes look callous.

My God, this felt like an exercise in a college comics writing course:

Create a story that is as much of a deliberate reversal of a hero's origin as possible. Bonus points if it involves Deadman.[/list]



Speaking of Bob Haney, while my memory is faulty, didn't he write a story about Superman having a hunchbacked brother or something equally absurd?

Well, a lot of the big ones are covered, and maybe some of my annoyances don't qualify as "mopees", but I truly chaffed at what happened to the Kents, who were put through enough weird science fiction scenarios to make it seem more likely that Pa Kent on his death said to Clark "its Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"...dying of tropical diseases, getting stuffed into the Phantom Zone, being re-vitalized by a youth serum...it really eroded the mythos of Clark being raised in a quite midwestern world of relative timelessness for me...

The notion of an enemy named Black Zero persisted in post-Crisis continuity, FWIW, but the specific Mopee aspect described didn't (unless you count all of post-Crisis continuity as a Mopee :) ).

The Simpsons episode where Principal Skinner is revealed to really be Armin whatshisface was an homage on the Mopee concept.  There's a speech at the end of the episode about how everything will be just like it was before and no one will ever mention it again.  And Hugo Simpson was a Halloween episode, where "normal Simpsons continuity" (whatever that is) wouldn't apply.  I'm not sure those are the greatest examples.  

The Mopee that gets to me is the Superman vs. Flash race that led off the DC Comics Presents series:

http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/races.html#dcp

with the revelation that Krypton and Earth were colonized by the waste products of the Zelkot and Volkir alien races.

I didn't mind Marvel Maid and Marvel Man of Terra, but some of you might recall my absolute LOATHING of "Supergirl's Secret Marriage!"

http://superman.nu/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1564

I'd love to see Superman #415 classified as a "Mopee" or a retcon.

Personally, I'd lump Superman #415 in with the Post-Crisis/Pre-Reboot period.  And just about anything in that zone, it could be argued, is non-canonical, for the simple reason that it doesn't fit in either continuity.

Basically those issues were fill-ins while Byrne got his ducks in a row.

Hmm...Byrne...ducks in row.  My kingdom for a rifle!

"Mopee", eh?

Isnt he the weird-oh with the wand who was revealed to have been the real creator of The Flash IIRC?

IIRC, that Skinner episode has the Judge declare that no one must ever mention the Armin whatsisname thing again under penalty of death (or something). Whatever. Yeah, I *really* hated that episode (not as much as I hated "Homer's Enemy", but it's up there...). And yes, the Halloween episodes "don't count" re: the show's usual canon (yeah, I maintain the show has some semblance of consistency/continuity... probably more than the average cookie-cutter sitcom... but that's another argument).

More on-topic:

>>
SUPERMAN #137 (1961) "reveals" that Superman's rocket was duplicated by an energy ray, creating an antisocial evil twin, Super-Menace that followed Superman all through his entire life, and finally had a showdown with an adult Superman. Apparently, something as important as Superman having AN EVIL TWIN THAT FOLLOWED HIM HIS WHOLE FRICKIN LIFE was not important enough to mention again. Alas, it may be possible that Super-Menace is canon: a poster in the SUPERMAN SOURCEBOOK shows the precise moment that Super-Menace was created.
<<

The story's reprinted in "Showcase Presents Superman" vol. 2. There, it's revealed that the evil twin stayed hidden from Superboy/Superman/the world at large until both were grown men, though Super-Menace caused an occasioal bout of anonymous trouble while growing up. Not exactly following him his whole life, I guess---just the usual "evil twin" cliche to me  :-)

>>
Everybody knows that Marty Pasko story, "The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis!" that has Superman use his glasses to magnify his hypnotic ability, which is why the Clark Kent disguise is so effective. It also has Superman hypnotize AN ENTIRE CITY, a feat he's thankfully never duplicated.
<<

I remember this one... wonder what the letter column responses about this one were like (or for these other "Mopee" stories, for that matter :-) ).

As I recall, no one bought Pasko's explanation as to why the glasses helped Superman fool people into believing he and Clark Kent were different people.

As for the Simpsons, I believe they relish the Mopee factor.  Smithers will point out to Burns his varried history with Homer with Burns admitting he doesn't recall a thing.  Sideshow Bob will be sentenced to death by beheading at the end of one show and show up perfectly healthy the next time he appears.  Occasionally throw away explanations are given, but more often than not they don't even bother.  As a joke they will point out past stories with characters not remembering them (Flanders asking Homer about why he doesn't use his "Mr. Plow" snowplow to rescue their children trapped in the snowbound school;  Homer will act like Flanders is crazy.  Flanders will point out that Homer is wearing a "Mr. Plow" jacket.  And Homer still doesn't remember).

Bob Haney probably does take the award for creating more Mopee stories than any other writer.  

Say, does unfinished continued stories count as Mopees?  Then how about Metamorpho being wanted for the murder of Saphire Stagg's husband and going on the run with Element Girl Urana Blackwell in the final issue of Metamorpho?  Or the Metal Men being made into, essentially, androids in the last five issues of Metal Men, only to reappear as robots when they refurfaced in Brave and the Bold?

While DC loves top make huge deals out of re-cons and restarts these days to boost sales, back in the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages it seem to happen all the time!

Lots of good ones:

The 1st Krptonite ever seen in the comics was colored Red, not Green! This version of Red K was re-Con into Green K, later another completely different Red K appeared which we all know and love.

Originally, The people of Krypton were called Krptonites! Later this was re-con by renaming them Kryptonians.

Superboy was never part of the mainstream continuity until many years after his comic was released, it wasn't until well into the 1960's that Superman's origin finally included him, thus making him official.

Speaking of Superboy, his comics re-con countless things, mostly people meeting a lot sooner than what was written in the Superman comics.

Some of Superman's powers was re-con in and out of continuity depending on the story.

Sandman saga anyone?

The list is endless..

But, did any of it bug you? 8)

I usually think its interesting to follow, and the product of one character continuing for so long and everyone plumbing the past for a new story angle...it also says something about the history of comics and where they went and what writers were up to what.

It bothered me most in Superboy, because beside the fact that he was introduced later and had to be fit in in bits and pieces with Superman, sometimes with lots of conflicts, the thing about the past is that its over and you can only squeeze so much in...with Superman, its the "present" and the possibilities for new stories are infinite..

no, it didn't. I never really care that much. I mean, it does makes things a bit wacky when writing entries, but that's part of the fun.

Yeah, I kind of like the differences when it comes to Supermanica, its comic history...continuity glitches can be fun to me...

It's one thing for there to be retcons.  It's another for some new piece of continuity that would clearly have a shattering effect on past and future stories to be introduced in one story, then be ignored for all of time.

The color of Kryptonite, the fact that it stands for a rock and not a race, etc. stayed the same after the change.  Superman didn't have one issue that described his life as a Superboy, never to be mentioned again.

The Sandman saga is closer to the mark, but persisted for almost a year until Denny O'Neil left Superman.  It was part of a deliberate "shake things up at DC" movement, and went to the same place that powerless Wonder Woman and the other stuff that didn't work went.  It's a pre-cursor to the Post-Crisis, where you have months and years of Superman that even the fans of Post-Crisis Supes generally wish to see blotted out -- Bluperman, the Superman: For Tomorrow storyline, etc.

The Thomas Wayne, Jr. business was made even worse by the fact that Deadman decided to inhabit his body permanently. What the hell, he's only a retard, right? It's not like he's a human being or anything. Then he sort of managed to place Thomas in mortal danger and get him killed. Batman was pretty choked up about it for about five minutes.

As I recall, the lettercol responses to this one were pretty good, not least because the story had actually been suggested by a letterhack - perhaps Beppe Sabbatini or even Al Schroeder III (of this parish). Frankly, I still don't exactly hate the story. It does make sense, in a weird sort of way.

If I remember right, there were explanations given during the Steve Gerber run for why the Metal Men lost their "human" identities that were given later on (and for why Professor Magnus returned to normal), so it isn't a "Mopee" story if it's explained away; only if it is just never mentioned again.



I don't think you're entirely clear on what a "Mopee" story is. A "Mopee" story is a tale that promises to make an extraordinary, earth-shattering revalation that totally recontextualizes something really important about a character, a revalation that is never, ever brought up afterward because everybody agrees never to mention it again: e.g. that the Flash's speed comes from a magical little elf, or Batman had a brother.

A few bumps and glitches in a character, particularly at the beginning (Daredevil using gadgets in his mask, Professor X admitting in a thought bubble that he "loves" Jean Grey, Superman using telepathy, the Fantastic Four living in a fictional city instead of the Big Apple, Batman using a gun, Dr. Don Blake building an android) are just that: bumps and glitches, more common back in the day when only guys like Roy Thomas and E. Nelson Bridwell were keeping track of these things.

(Also, it should be noted that "retcon," as Roy Thomas originally defined it, had a much more specific meaning than how it is used today.)

Possibly the worst atrocity Bob Haney committed - and he committed quite a few in my opinion (I don't know if you would call it a "Mopee", Julian, but I would) - was in a Batman team-up story in The Brave and the Bold, where he actually had Catwoman murder someone.

Now, it was definitely established in a number of earlier Catwoman appearances that she would never kill anyone, under any circumstances, and I thought this was extremely out of character.

As far as I know she never killed again.

Bob Haney and editor Murray Boltinoff seemed to think that they could use (or abuse) other editors' characters as they liked.

For instance, no explanation is ever given why Dr. Fate and Wildcat, of Earth-2, occasionally teamed up with Batman.

Oh I see, so only the Sandman Saga would count on my list?

That's not a "Mopee"; it's an "Earth-B" story:


Earth-B
Keyword(s): The Brave and the Bold
Classification: Alternate Earth
Key Events
First Appearance: uncertain
Notable Appearance: The Brave and the Bold #131, circa 1973
Probable Appearance: DC Challenge! #1-12, 1985-1986
This Earth is a resting ground for stories that contradict known fact. "Fact" in this case mostly means "editorial decree". For example, the above issue of The Brave and the Bold has Catwoman committing murder, which the "official" Catwomen of Earths 1 and 2 would never do. The continuity-shattering and extremely silly maxiseries DC Challenge! probably took place on Earth-B. This earth is named "B" because most of the stories relegated to it were either edited by Murray Boltinoff, written by Bob Haney or E. Nelson Bridwell, or appeared in The Brave and the Bold.

(From http://www.io.com/~woodward/chroma/atminor.html )


So if "DC Challenge!" was Earth-B's version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, then it might still exist, along with Kara and Barry!   :D   Even if it means a murderous Catwoman, I'll take Earth-B for the present one any day.   :wink:

I thought Earth-B was for

Holy BEEP I can't belive they printed that!
and
What the BEEP was that?

 :wink:

I think the closest they came to explaining away the Metal Men's "human" ID's was their first B & B appearance after their last Metal Men issue.  Gold is found masquerading as a human and simply takes off the mask when confronted by Mercury.  Other than that, no real explaination was offered in the Metal Men's own book.

Perhaps a better Mopee story might be the Metal Men-Atom story in B & B, in which Doctor Magnus reveals that his first Metal Man was called Uranium and Doc "killed" him because he was controlable.  This was never mentioned again, even in the Metal Men's own book.  

I suspect that the MM's "the were actually human beings first before becoming robots" story line has been Mopee'd now, judging from the recent 52 issues.  This was the entire problem with the idea that the reason why the Metal Men were thinking robots was because they were human souls in the metal shells.  Doc had previously invented Uranium, the Metal Women, and the Gas Gang.  Plus, I think, Plutonium Man in their revival series.  Getting rid of the idea that the Metal Men were humans prior is probably one of the best things DC did with Infinite Crisis.

Behold the errie origin of MOPEE!!!

http://www.dcindexes.com/planet/weeklyplanet.php?issue=4

And yes I have that issue...even eerier. :shock:

Reading the John Broome/Gil Kane Green Lantern showcase, the thing that strikes me as the most interesting and distinctive thing about DC in this period is that there was a sort of science fiction, rationalist vibe about the entire way the universe works: GL helps in astronaut training and the army with experimental missile tests, and there are references to "bollides."

Many heroes have powers that work by magic, without consequence; the Flash wasn't like that. He had an explanation for why he wasn't harmed by friction, for instance.

Thus, a detail like Flash getting his powers from a "Heaven Helpmate, Tenth Class" is totally inappropriate for the Flash's fundamentally rational world, and while I wouldn't say his world is "grounded," because the Flash could get pretty out there sometimes, his context was nonetheless science fiction. Mopee maybe would work in something like a living acid trip like the Golden Age Captain Marvel. In other words, it just wasn't a FLASH story.



You ain't kidding, Mike. I hate that little imp so much it's not even funny.

I've been going in frenzy to rationalize this entire story away somehow. Maybe the Trickster laced the Central City police water supply with LSD that day, and this absurd episode took place. The Flash, being a bow-tie wearing conservative that probably goes into bars to order milk, no doubt would be unable to recognize that he's under the influence, and would experience something this weird. Though there is a mental image there, of the Flash zipping about getting chemicals, mumbling about how he has to let the invisible elf give him his speed back.

Geez, Barry, you should BE so lucky, if this is the least that you do under Lucy in the Sky. I knew a friend that took a sledgehammer and smashed a toilet because he said there were snakes coming out of it.

Actually, this explanation can work. Acid can make you menaced by Elves!

I'm just waiting for Mopee to be revealed as one of MY hallicinations, though.  :D

Maybe Mopee was real, but didn't actually have anything to do with Flash's origin. He could be a prankster a la Mxyzptlk making up this story just to waste Flash's time.

He could've helped out a different dimension's Flash than the Earth-1 was talking to.  He might've just been a little confused, like Larry/Nosyarg Kcid from the Teen Titans cartoon.

I don't know if this qualifies, but in Action #265 (reprinted in Superman #207), Superman meets his exact double from another world, Hyper-Man, and we learn that Red Kryptonite could, theoretically, kill Superman!  I always thought Red K was a relatively harmless source of goofy stories (Superman as a Super-Ant and so on).  Were its deadly properties ever mentioned again after this issue?

Then again, when I first saw the heading Superman's Mopee Tales, I thought you meant the following:

http://www.comicbooktidbits.com

Well, it was more of an extrapolation based on the fact that Blue Zoronite acted that way on Hyper-Man, I don't think the theoretical concept was ever mentioned again, and its doubtful Superman would leave a chunk of Red Kryptonite on a shelf without shielding like Hyper-Man did with Blue Zoronite...

That's true.  Still, in fairness to Hyper-Man, he never had encountered Blue Zoronite before, and he was virtually invulnerable.  When you're invulnerable, you could suffer lapses in safety judgement, especially when encountering something new.  Heck, most people suffer occassional lapses in judgement, and we're certainly not invulnerable.

It certainly would've added a different flavor to all those Red K stories if Superman believed he was risking death each time, though.

Well, true, but then the same computer that tells Superman that Hyperman is going to die could have told him whether Red Kryptonite really was deadly to himself as well... 8)

Fair enough, though it makes me wonder if Superman had the computer around when he first encountered Red K?

As an aside, is the storyline where Superman executed those 3 Phantom Zone criminals still a part of "canon", or has it been regulated to "mopee" status?  I hope it's now just a rude memory.

Superboy-Prime's trusty punch took that nasty bit of history away, but it's not like that was the real superman anyway.

Yeah, the good thing about comics is, hey they aren't real, so you can live the stories and eras that you want and there will come a "crisis" that makes that an OK and defendable choice...

Thus the "mopee" is back to a choice of preference anyways... 8)

I thought of two Mopee stories involving one of my favorites, the Metal Men.

1)  The Metal Men were actually made of a polymer material which simulated the appearance and properties of the metal they were supposed to have been made of.  I believe this was in John Byrne's Action Comics # 590.  

2)  Then in #599 we are told the Responsometer, which gives them their intelligence, is microscopic.  Finally, in the mini-series which said they were actually humans originally the responsometer is the size of baseball and looks sort of like a golf ball.

John Byrne's middle name is Mopee -- betcha didn't know that!