That proposed Sinister back story sounds great, wish it had turned out that way!

Thundarr does look like classic Toth, though the Sealab designs might be the cleanest of all.

Interestingly enough, when Claremont first had him join the team, others commented about how suspicious they were of him (I remember Banshee once thinking that Gambit was learning so much about the other X-men, but not really revealing anything about himself).

As for him being a badass…well, he cheated the time he beat Wolverine, which I always thought was interesting.

The funniest thing about all this is that a previous poster in this thread used the phrase “Master Villain,” capitalization and all, but it had nothing to do with the Flash story.”

Damn, I remember that story! You’ve just opened a room full of memories for me, Zeke. Cary Bates was gloriously insane.

Gabe Carey speaks the truth!

Kirby’s touches are noticeable everywhere from old posters for Jaws VII and Revenge of the Jedi to Gemini (looks a lot like Darkseid).

Ironically, you’ve just managed to describe why I NEVER liked him much as a character.

I was 13 at the time, and even then I realized that they were basically trying to make another Wolverine sort of character, fueled by Wolverine’s immense popularity. Mysterious past? Check. Gritty badassery? Check. More “lethality” than other X-Men? Check. The ability to win half his fights without even using his actual mutant power? Check.

His initial introduction was almost interesting, but even within a few months, the pseudo-rivalry they set up with Wolverine was starting to turn me off the character, because it came across like a blatant “Oooh, see how tough/badass he is? He can even beat up Wolverine!” Then he goes on to more or less successfully seduce Rogue (which was horrible storytelling, when you consider the previous 10 years worth of her character development), apparently become best friends with Storm on the basis of the help he gave her – he came across like a blatant Mary Sue fanfic character that could do no wrong.

The irony is, had they kept the whole “empath” aspect of his powers and the “infiltrator” aspect of his character, I’d probably have found him to be incredibly cool – many of his faults can be explained away as his power manipulating those around him, while his intent in doing so was to destroy the X-Men from the inside out. As is? I don’t think they even remotely gave him a story I gave a damn about.

Thank you Brian!

Jon

What happens, if you’re curious, is that Barney confesses to Flash that he drew Master Villain, and shows him a superhero he’s drawn to take MV down. Of course, he has no idea how to bring the new guy to life — so in a classic Cary Bates maneuver, Barry dresses up as the superhero and fakes his powers with super-speed. I forget why this is more effective than just fighting him as the Flash, but it works. The alien consciousness leaves Earth and Master Villain disappears.

The funniest thing about all this is that a previous poster in this thread used the phrase “Master Villain,” capitalization and all, but it had nothing to do with the Flash story.

- Z

“Damn, if that wasn’t something people knew, I should have somehow made THAT a legend!”

Sorry to blow a column idea, Brian.

I (obviously) hadn’t known, but I had spent two-and-a-half years exiled* in L.A. while She Who Must Be Obeyed was going to grad school at UCLA and I just started referring to the place as “ookla” as my own semi-private joke.

(* And before any Angelenos who might be reading this jump on me for that “exiled” crack: I don’t/can’t drive. If traveling greater L.A. on public trransit doesn’t count as exile to a Northeast Corridor boy, I don’t know what does!)

Damn, if that wasn’t something people knew, I should have somehow made THAT a legend!

Scott Shaw! told me this just the other night. He said that Jack Kirby came up with the name, and that it was in fact meant to be a pronunciation of “UCLA”. Since he was told this by Jack Kirby himself, and it sounds like the kind of thing Kirby used to come up with all the time, I don’t see any reason to doubt it.

I was so fed up, I dropped all the X-titles. (And just in time to avoid all the crap than came in the next few years of the 90s — X-Cutioner’s Song, Marrow, Legacy Virus, amazing amounts of horrific art. I suspect I would have had an even worse taste in my mouth if I had lived through those days.

Interesting… Ookla the Mok is also the name of a very popular reggae band here in Hawaii.

-r-

Interesting that you bring that up. About a year or so ago, someone wrote up a comparison between Sinister and Frank N. Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The gist of it was:

1) Both are into leather, with pale faces and darkened lips.

2) Both are obsessed with a pair of young lovers and subsequently ruin their lives in really twisted ways.

3) Both are mad scientists driven to create the “perfect man/mutant”

I’ve always wondered whether Ookla’s name was intended as a ’70s Southern California pun. He was the big, loud, ugly, hairy, bad-tempered presence in the group. Pronounce UCLA as one word, and see what you think.

I didn’t know that Steve Gerber was involved with Thundarr… makes my suspicious mind even more convinced.

Any chance of finding out from Gerber himself?