“As above, so below.
From the tiny and ordinary to the vast and celestial.
Mr. Stubbs is the name of the circus chimpanzee in from a serialized story entitled Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus collected in book form in 1881. The book, a gritty yarn for kids, was a favourite of both Harlan Ellison and William Burroughs interestingly enough. No idea what might have attracted Burroughs to this tale of lithe wild youths and chattering chimps!
Disney released a film version of Toby Tyler in 1960 and it was this movie adaptation that prompted my beloved cousin Agnes to borrow the name ‘Mr. Stubbs’ for the christening of her ‘Jacko’ chimp toy.
Jacko was a popular Chad Valley ape doll in the early 1960s, when most kids wound up with one of these rubber primates in his rakish striped jersey, like a beatnik bonobo. Like so many of my generation, I had a Jacko of my own and indeed still do – he sits, as he has done for decades, on top of my bookshelf with the same glass-eyed grin I’ve known since childhood – but as a show of eternal devotion to my cousin, there was no option but to name my toy after hers, and so was born Mr. Stubbs 2!
Some combination of the spirit of both our simian pals gives life to Uotan’s faithful sidekick.
I left Nix Uotan, Last of the Monitors, in his human guise at the end of Final Crisis – a cosmic being grounded on Earth disguised as an ordinary human being with everyday problems – like the need to pay his rent, which frames the entire story.
For his appearance in The Multiversity, we chose to streamline Uotan into a more superheroic figure; I asked Ivan Reis to sex up Uotan’s previous A Clockwork Orange look to make it more of a sleek sci-fi superhero costume in black and gold with an impressive cape. I figured he’d have adopted a style more in keeping with his surroundings in the DC Universe.
We never really resolve whether or not Uotan’s unnamed human identity is hallucinating his adventures as he lies reading comics on Xannies and Zoloft. Are stories real? Monitors move in mysterious ways…
Superjudge is an album by psychedelic rock band Monster Magnet. Frontman Dave Wyndorf is a long-time comics fan, often citing Kirby in his lyrics. Dave kindly gave me permission to use Superjudge as Nix Uotan’s official superhero name, and he’s thanked in the last issue of the series.
If Nix Uotan is Wotan, the God of Wednesday when the comics come out, if Wotan, like The Babylonian Nabu, Roman Mercury, Greek Hermes, Egyptian Thoth and many others is a god of speed, communication, language, then Stubbs represents the so-called ‘Ape of Thoth’, the cynocephalus that capers around the silver-tongued mage like the Jester taunts the King, pricking pomposity with humour, obscuring wisdom with inane chatter and madcap interpretation.
Nix Uotan was created to be DC’s Dr. Who equivalent – in this case, a super-powerful black character traversing the many worlds of the Multiverse, solving problems in his cosmic yellow submarine with a wisecracking pirate chimp for company! I’ve always been a little disappointed no-one has thought to pick him up and run with the concept.
As our two heroes travel in their shiftship, the Ultima Thule to answer a distress call from Earth-7, they encounter only ruin and horror and a universe broken and spoiled…”
MASTER:
Hello, Doctor.
Welcome to The End of Your Existence.
Say 'Hello' to my friends.
I believe we're all acquainted...
..right? Do you like the garb?
I love the garb.
Got to Dress for The Occasion.
I was just thinking...
We could call this...
The Master's Dalek Plan.
Or The, er... Cyber-Dalek Master Plan, or
The Cyber-Master's Dalek Plan?
I can't quite get it.
But in the end I suppose
we'll just call it :
The Day I Killed The Doctor...
..with a little help
from my friends.
Our Lady :
SCOFFING: Your friends?
You hate each other.
MASTER:
And the one thing stronger than
their hatred for each other...
..is their hatred for you.
Just took a little handsome
genius to point it out to them.
"What Unites Us is stronger
than What Divides Us."
I mean, that's very You, that, isn't it?
You love a Team, don't you?
Letting every Tom, Dick and
Harriet into Your TARDIS...
Well, You have Your Fam.
Now... I have mine.
Our Lady :
So everything else was a diversion?
MASTER:
No. No. No!
Not a diversion. Very important!
Three-phase plan. You'll see.
Except you won't.
MASTER LAUGHS
But rest assured,
without you to defend it,
Earth will fall very, very fast.
I did warn you, Doctor.
I'm going old-school, Doctor.
A Tribute to our elders.
Do you remember The Ultimate Sanction
for breaking Our Laws?
Our Lady :
[WHISPERS]
Forced regeneration.
MASTER:
They even did it to you
once, didn't They?
Well, maybe more than once.
Who knows? Not you.
Our Lady :
You don't have the Technology.
MASTER:
I do. I do. I do!
MASTER GIGGLES
When I ransacked Gallifrey,
I took everything.
But where would he get The Power?
If only I had a planet built for this purpose....
No, wait, wait. I do!
MASTER LAUGHS MANIACALLY
You did get that, right?
A conversion planet.
Except it doesn't only convert organic to Cyber.
I brought it here to help another Conversion altogether.
MUSIC:
Rasputin by Boney M
♪ There lived a certain
man in Russia long ago
♪ He was big and strong
In his eyes a flaming glow
♪ Most people looked at him
with terror and with fear... ♪
VINDER:
OK, Doctor. This is my last roll of the dice. I've been
carrying this around with me since you gave it to me.
♪ ..like a preacher
Full of ecstasy and fire
♪ But he also... ♪
You need my help?
I could certainly do with yours.
But I'm not holding out much hope.
♪ Ra-Ra-Rasputin Lover
of the Russian queen
♪ There was a cat
that really was gone
♪ Ra-Ra-Rasputin Russia's
greatest love machine
♪ It was a shame how
he carried on... ♪
Let's get you out of there.
This is Inston-Vee Vinder saying,
if you need my help... Vinder!
..I could certainly do with yours.
MASTER:
Hello, TARDIS.
Receiving this loud and clear?
Say Goodbye, Yaz.
TARDIS, lock on to his signal.
Forced regeneration, Doctor.
To force you...
to regenerate... into Me.
Our Lady :
Oh, no! You wouldn't....
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