Agent of HINDER (part 32)
Super Sunday: Dr. Greenclothes and Friends
The world’s most badass science explorer, Dr. Greenclothes, and his family go on weekly adventures to discover the nature of reality.
Veronica is the world’s foremost detective. Though she is as interested in solving the mysteries of reality as much as her husband is, she’s a lot more interested in dealing out justice. Because of her, many of the family’s more benign scientific experiments turn into fights against crime cartels or international supervillains. Sometimes this annoys Dr. Greenclothes, but Veronica always makes him see how good it feels to fight crime. As an unrelated side note, Veronica has an irrational fear of sepia-toned photos.
Debbie is not yet as badass as her parents, but that is mostly because of her age. Occasionally people worry if it isn’t too dangerous to be dragging a child along on the family’s various quests, but nobody can deny their ability to protect the kid. Debbie does like her life, but sometimes wishes she could make some normal friends. After all, imagine how great it would be to have your friends constantly telling you how badass you are.
Bob once conducted an experiment to prove the idea that the universe was just a computer simulation. Though the experiment backfired, and turned Bob into a pixelated person, it impressed Dr. Greenclothes, who took Bob on as an assistant. They have since become best friends and continue to experiment together. While his professional life is going well, he’s a bit of a loser socially.
Nuzbudar is a Dimension Goblin who works as a science dealer. It sells scientific equipment to the highest bidder, which means it could be on Dr. Greenclothes’s side, but it could also be against him. Anything for a sweet sweet buck.
Commander Alabaster Wurstell Dogfights is a military man who thinks that Dr. Greenclothes and his family have no right being as badass as they are. That level of badassery, Dogfights insists, should be reserved for the military. With that in mind, Wurstell frequently tries to sabotage the family’s experiments, or to have experiments of his own that tend to go badly.
This is another self-serving excuse to expand my characters, but it could maybe work as one of those animated shows that is as forcused on action as much as comedy.
Medini the Mystic Master of the Mysteries of the Mind
Medini is one of Superman’s very first super-powered villains, possibly the first. The Ultra-Humanite came before him, but was mostly human with cool technology at this point. Medini is also one of, if not the, earliest non-white characters to appear in Superman. I put it to you that these historical accomplishments mean that Mednini deserves to make a comeback.
For the record, Medini is a hypnotist who appeared in a single story back in Action Comics #25 way back in 1940. Although he does have actual mental powers, he is also a scam artist, getting people to come use his supposed services and actually hypnotizing them into doing crimes for him that they later don’t remember. It would have been a perfect scheme if not for that meddling Superman.
Worth noting: for a non-white character created in 1940, Medini is somehow manages to not be a racial caricature. His powers and turban do kind of suggest an “oriental mystic” sort, but I get the impression he is playing into that image for his scheme. And, incidentally, I actually kind of love his yellow and green suit/turban/gloves look. We never learn where he’s from, but there’s no accent and he’s not drawn as a subhuman creature. He could easily be a surprisingly decent depiction of a South Asian or Middle Eastern guy for that era.
If I said that Terra-Man was a C-lister I want moved up to the A-list, poor Medini is an F-lister I want moved all the way up to the B-list. Seems unlikely, but I think there’s a way to do it.
I figure that the Superman books need a solid cast of recurring C and B-list villains. They aren’t the type who get big arcs or imperil the world or anything, but they can be there for a fun standalone plot now and then. That’s where Medini should be.
Give me an issue where Medini hypnotizes all of Metropolis so they forget how to use computers until they pay his ransom. Give me an issue where Medini hypnotizes Metallo into beating up other villains while Medini gambles on the winners. Give me an issue where Medini hypnotizes Jimmy so he thinks he’s a fugitive and he flees unnecessarily. Just give me an issue with Medini.
Agent of HINDER (part 31)
Super Sunday: The Spookersons
The classic sitcom staple of a family made up of spooky weirdos. As would be expected from me, this show is much darker than the usual.
The woman now known as Mummy Spookerson was pregnant in the 1930s, when a demon-worshipping cult member murdered her and her husband. While her husband’s body was chopped up and used in an occult ritual, the woman was mummified and her remains left hidden in a crypt. Whatever sinister purpose the cult originally had for the remains body was forgotten when they were all slaughtered by the demons they summoned. Ten years ago, the mummified corpse woke up. Uncertain what to do with her mysteriously returned life, she just decided to get back to living. She took ownership of the mansion the cult once owned, gave birth to the twins she’d been carrying, and got a job working at a grocery store nearby, where she is now the night manager.
Mummy’s husband was dissected and most of body parts ended up who knows where. His skull, however, sat safely in the cult’s mansion. When Mummy’s woke up, some mystical energies present in the mansion allowed the husband’s spirit to animate the skull. The couple was reunited, and now Deady is a stay-at-home father of the twins. Still, even ten years later, he has trouble corporealizing, so he’s a bit clumsy.
Sally is fascinated by the supernatural, so it is good luck for her that she’s growing up in a cultist mansion with a library of books on occult rituals and artifacts. She’s has trouble behaving in school, and frequently tries to use mystical short cuts to make her life easier, which only gets her into more trouble.
Billy is nerdier than his sister, so he prefers to make his occult dabblings more scientific in nature. He wants to discover things that aren’t in the books in the library. New things. And he wants to be famous for it. He’s got a big ego, and is trying very hard to live up to it.
Uncle is not actually the uncle of the Spookerson family, he’s a cousin, some times removed or whatever, who happens to actually be named Uncle. He was lonely when he was the only surviving member of his family, so when the Spookerson family popped up again, he was happy to join them. He now dotes on the twins and helps them with their various rituals and experiments.
Mr. Curtis lives next to the Spookersons’ mansion, and he is a paranormal investigator. He makes internet videos in which he hunts for ghosts and monsters. He has no idea that there is anything strange about the Spookersons. He thinks Mummy is a burn victim, and has been too embarrassed to ever bring up her late husband. And he thinks all children are strange monsters, so he takes no especial notice of the twins. As far as he can tell, they’re just a normal family. This infuriates the demon once worshipped by the cult, because it is constantly sending messages to Mr. Curtis, trying to get him to kill Mummy so it can be freed from the otherworldly prison where it is trapped. Mr. Curtis is just completely oblivious to the demonic messages.
As a child, I enjoyed the Addams Family (both the movies and the original show), but I have not seen any version of the Munsters. Still, I doubt that that show had the in-depth exploration of the supernatural I’d be trying for here.
