Superman Through the Ages! Forum

My personal favorite Mxyzptlk tales are by Martin "Pesky" Pasko, who was a party to "resuscitating" many members of the Superman Rogues Gallery (this was the guy that brought back the original Toyman, and had Bizarro returned to his roots as a sympathetic, mentally challenged dupe. Pasko also created the Atomic Skull, the second Metallo, and Master Jailer.

The reason Mxyzptlk never worked for me before Pasko - and never worked after him, for that matter - is because Mxy's an example of LOST IN SPACE thinking in action. By that I mean that in a show like a Western, if a bear or an Indian attacks someone, they give an explanation for what led it to do so.

With LOST IN SPACE, though? "Let's have a big monster come out...and it'll kill a whole bunch of people! Ooo-rah!"

Same thing with Mr. Mxy: why does he bother with Superman, anyway? It always came off as an insane whim.

Marty, though, gave Mxy something of an inner life other than just attacking Superman. For instance, he had Mr. Mxyzptlk fall in love and get married.

When Mr. Mxy's marriage didn't work out (because it turned out his wife wasn't really beautiful at all - which in and of itself was good characterization of Mxy as a shallow, inconstant person - he decided to turn his wrath against Superman and his love in SUPERMAN #349.

At the time, it should be remembered, a running subplot was Pasko had Superman and Lois get serious. Tying that recurring story into this one, Mxyzptlk's logic was this: why should Superman be enjoying life and love when he wasn't?

Suddenly, we had a reason for why Mxy went after Superman: envy, but a kind of envy born out of ego and narcissism.

That's why Mxy's such an entertaining character, who trascends his origin in the usually dimwitted category of lame prankster sprites like Quisp or (shudder) Bat-Mite. He's an interesting person onto himself. Mxy works whereas these other characters don't, because things about him make sense: it's perfectly in character for him to have hideous fashoin sense, for instance, because that's the kind of guy he is.

Another of my favorite Mxyzptlk stories, apart from the one where he got married, was the Jim Shooter/Swan Legion story in the 1960s, a part of the battle against Prince Evilo, one of the uber-rare (perhaps only) occasions where Mxyzptlk battled both Superman and Mon-El.

This story is terrific because it had Mxy with HAIR.

This is the exchange that really got me to love Mr. Mxyzptlk:

SUPERBOY: Most of your creations usually disappear or return to normal after you leave. We're here to get something for the Superboy Museum.

MR. MXYZPTLK: I can understand that...I am pretty terrific!

(Suddenly we understand why Mxy wears a bowler hat: he's insecure about his baldness. I can totally see Mxy going bald and panicking about it.)

With the greatest respect to Alan Moore, I think Mxyzptlk is one of those characters of the Super-Mythos, like Supergirl, that he doesn't "get." For instance, the appearance by Szazs (Mxy Brand X style), which has him be a danger because he thinks so differently than human beings that he causes trouble unntentionally.

The reason Mxy is enjoyable to read about is because he's so blustering and egotistical, with hideous fashoin sense, so very funny and understandable, not because he's alien and incomprehensible.

Mxy as jealous doesn't interest me, I much prefer his original stories, all-powerful but with the mind of an adolescent (at the stage of Ashton Kuchher wanting to "punk" people)- challenging the Man of Steel because he's a symbol of more mature power.  Not being a Bronze Age fan, I'm lukewarm about the Master Jailer in general, but at least he's a new character with specific newly-revealed events to be jealous about.

It says even more that Mxy's reaction to his failed marriage was to create a world in which all the sexes were reversed, almost as though he was challenging Superman to get it on with "Louis" Lane. There are probably many layers of subtext to investigate there. This is a beautifully weird story, and it gets extra weirdness points for having been published at such a late date (1980 or so, am I right?).

By and large, I like the idea of Mxy stories more than their actual execution. In some ways, he's a perfect Superman villain because Kal can't confront him directly and has to rely on his wits to outsmart him. Unfortunately, this is rarely well brought off, despite the fact that it has plenty of narrative and comedic value. I agree with Julian that Alan Moore's depiction of Mxyzptlk was a bit jarring, but I don't think he meant it as his ultimate take on the character; he was just monkeying around with that, because what the hey, right? As it happens, he could probably have written a rollicking oldschool Mxy story - anyone remember his Swamp Thing story "Pog", with its take on Pogo? Moore can do anything. Of course, I idolise him, so my view is sightly biased in this regard.

(By the way, I remember the Prince Evilo story, and I love the fact that Superboy and Mon-El travel back in time to encounter a young Mxy to steal his hair, as though Superboy were somehow doomed to make his future enemies bald. Is that the same story where Shrinking Violet has to perform microsurgery with tiny bits of kryptonite on Superboy and then escapes through his tear ducts, or am I mixing it up with something else?)

I always wondered were bat-mite and mxy from the same place?

World's Funnest is one of the greatest Mxy tales, IMO, and easily fits into Pre-Crisis continuity.

Yeah, July 1980.

Well, I assume the reason Mxy did what he did was because he wanted Superman to be unhappy just as he was, after his marriage failed, so he created a circumstance where he and Lois COULDN’T be happy.

Also, what you’re saying is precisely what I liked about Superman 349: it wasn’t immediately obvious that it was a Mxyzptlk story.

Usually they have a particular format (Step 1: taxicabs in the city start turning into frogs, Step 2: Superman shows up, Step 3: Mxy starts causing buildings to come to life with people inside them, Step 4: Superman pulls a big con on Mxy to say his name backwards). Things can succeed by formula and fail by formula too, but it was refreshing for Pasko to do away with the formula altogether.

And it wasn’t immediately obvious all of it was a Mxy creation even when they drop the bombshell that Mxy is, because of his vanity, still male in this gender-switched world. This is the story got me wondering if there might be ONE Mxyptlk for all earths, because I just assumed that was the explanation for the Mxy pic.

Not to get off-topic, but I always found it interesting that Pasko was one of the sole writers to get a lot of mileage out of Superman’s Super-Hypnotism power. The Master Mesmerizer had him hypnotize an entire city, and this story had him hypnotize Dude Wonder Woman. This perhaps, is the one weakness of the story: it’s always been established that Super-Hypnotism is a peculiar property of Superman’s eyes, so Superman using a reflection of light to hypnotize isn’t how his powers work.


Interesting observation about baldness, though the implication in the story is they just cut some of Mxy’s hair instead of actually making him bald…they even say as they leave Zrff, that “That’s what you’ll look like when you get older, if you’re curious!”

That wasn’t this story, but you’re in the right ballpark: Shrinking Violet’s shrinking journey into Superboy (some years before the Roy Thomas-Neal Adams journey into the Vision) was the story right before this one, “The Outlaw Legionnaires” with Miss Terious and Sir Prize – really Star Boy and Dream Girl. Considering the severity of Star Boy’s transgression (murder, even in self-defense) it’s hard to imagine Star Boy coming back to the Legion any other way other than Superboy’s last Legion request.

Incidentally, one of Levitz’s more inspired ideas was that Saturn Queen was one of Prince Evilo’s ex-wives.

One of the potentially-interesting post-Crisis ideas was that Mxyzptlk created Red Kryptonite.  I've speculated that maybe a stronger tie with Red K was in order -- perhaps the reason Mxyzptlk became interested in tormenting our favorite Kryptonian was because the explosion, perhaps in conjunction with baby Kal-El's space warping ship, shoved a bunch of Krypton into Zrfff.  It gave a dimension of bored imps something to do besides compete in the Impolympics.

Originally, no. Although in recent years I've come across mistaken references to Bat-Mite being from the Fifth Dimension too. It was just some remarkably similar, unidentified dimension but with the difference that they didn't seem to have the "saying your name backwards sends you back" conditions.

Not that it mattered, because nobody ever learned Bat-Mite's real name...

I'm thinking maybe it was Etim-Tab.

Anyone read "the worlds funnest" featuring Batmite and Mr.Myx fighting each other??? Now, that was a good comic!!!

I prefer Mr.Myx as just bothering Supes basically because he's bored.

I personally think the best Mxy tale is actually - his 1st appearance way back in the Golden Age, basically redone in S:TAS.  It was classic and quintessential Superman/Mxy and the dynamic never evolved since then - so perfect it was. 

Mxy's appearances were some of the few times you'd see Superman books take on Captain Marvel book qualities of humor and fantastic events.

The Krisis of Krinson Kryptonite, by Jurgens and Ordway, his appearence in Superman: The Animated Series, by Paul Dini and in recent Adventures of Superman, by Greg Rucka, are all good tales of Mr. Mxyzptlk in Post-Crisis DC Universe. Talking about another similar character, I just love the introduction of Impossible Man in the first Essential Fastastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Great understanding of the core character and how to defeat him. Really brilliant.     

Byrne made them both the same character during his run.

The Capt Marvel comparison is spot on: they share not just the magic word gimmick but the plot device of tricking the evil character (a la Rumpelstiltskin) into saying the word, as Uncle Dudley did to Black Adam repeatedly.

I like the Miss Gzptlsnz stories in Jimmy Olsen.  Mxy's nagging girlfriend is a perfect parallel to the treatment of Lois in the Silver Age and her pursuit of Jimmy was a perfect example of the parallels built into the biographies of all members of the Superman Family (ie, Superman gets Mxy and Jimmy gets Miss Gzptlsnz).  I'm sure given enough time a prankster sprite would have been made a regular in Lois Lane --maybe a good-looking sorceress who made life miserable for Lois while pursuing Superman (and I don't mean Lana).

Giving Mxy motivation and subplots is certainly by-the-book 70s Marvelization tactics but I don't think those stories would be my fave.  Although I would prefer a more philosophical, less trigger happy/bufoonish Mxy.  But then what would his weakness be?  Women?  Pride?

And Mxy probably doesn't have bad fashion sense compared to the rest of his countrymen.

(And why doesn't Superman fly to get Wonder Woman every time Mxy shows up???)

Larry from the Teen Titans cartoon told me that Bat-Mite's real name was  Enyaw Ecurb.

Of course!

I got a real kick out of Mrs. in the Animated Series.  It made total sense for her to be a babe than a little female Mxy.  Neat!!!

(By the way, Larry the Robi-mite's real name is Drahcir Nosyarg.)

Sounds more like a mash-up with the story Julian referred to.  I will look for it in reruns 10 years from now...

What I always liked about Mxyzptlk stories is the idea that Superman is completely overpowered by Mxy and must rely on his wits alone. Mxy's powers are as far beyond Superman's as I suppose hi are beyond say a mugger or burglar.

I loved seeing in some recent comic where some alien picked up a little purple bowler hat with some perpelxing statement like "he was afraid of this?" Showing how just the hat can be symbollic of a being with ultimate power...

My favorite Mxyzptlk tale is a post-CRISIS story where he turns Superman and reality into an animated cartoon form and assaults him with various cartoon analogs of Fred Flintstone, Mighty Mouse, the Smurfs, and some sea serpent that I don't remember its actual name.

Overall, Emperor Joker

Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent, perhaps?

Off on a tangent: wonder what it must've been like to see Mighty Mouse or other superhero cartoons on Earth-1 before Superboy came along; guessing the animators must've thought that a character who could fly and had vast strength was "just a silly cartoonish idea that could never actually happen". For that matter, would love to see what Superman thinks of such superhero cartoons like Mighty Mouse, Underdog, Atom Ant, etc...

Haha! Nice idea! I wonder if he thinks of them as a sort of insult to the superhero community or something. "Actually, we prefer the term 'differently-abled persons', and we do feel that Mighty Mouse belittles our struggle to conform to society. The very fact that differently-abled persons are equated with mice or other animals is in itself a demeaning and insulting aspect of these cartoons."