The Immortal Man's biggest claim to fame may well be forgotten.. as the founder of the Forgotten Heroes. This team was composed of various plain clothed (and in Animal Man's case, costumed) crusaders of justice on Earth-One, such as Rip Hunter the Time Master, geologist Cave Carson, deep sea divers the Sea Devils, jungle explorer Congo Bill, Suicide Squad leader Rick Flagg and mysterious maiden the Dolphin.. He had assembled them in order to combat his age-old foe, Vandal Savage, however Savage originated on Earth-Two!
As Immortal Man explained to his fellow champions of justice, he and Vandal had been exposed to the same strange comet that bequeathed them both with extensive lifespans. And through the eon they battled one another perpetually. How could this be, if one was on Earth-One and the other on Earth-Two? In his first tale on Earth-One, Vandal mentioned that he left his home world to conquer this parallel planet by changing its history and thereby controlling its greatest champion, Superman, whose counterpart had alongside the Justice Society defeated him shortly before this.
In his next appearance, Savage had created a company known as Abraxas, Inc... designed to employ robotic replicas of the Man of Steel in order to more sufficiently protect Metropolis. However, this was a mere ploy by Vandal to supplant Superman and thereby fracture the public's perception of its once prominent protector. After then manipulating the radioactive Neutron into battling Superman, this lured the hero into the headquarters of Abraxas whereby he was sprayed with spores that Superman innocently spread throughout Metropolis which caused environmental chaos. This tied to ancient alien pyramids as Savage's means of returning Earth-One to prehistoric conditions he could control, although at this point Immortal Man revealed himself while recruiting the Forgotten Heroes into joining him in aiding the Man of Steel while defeating his immortal adversary. Since at this point Immortal Man confirmed their history, and Vandal had just previously mentioned leaving Earth-Two to conquer this new world, it is the inescapable conclusion that Immortal Man originated from Earth-Two as well... only leaving it for Earth-One when Vandal himself did.
What can we conclude from this? The adventures of the various "Immortal Men" accumulated racial memories contained within the comet crystal that the original Immortal Man and his subsequent heirs possessed... all took place on Earth-Two until this tale with the Forgotten Heroes. Thus, the various Immortal Men had counterparts on Earth-One that were also heroic figures from around the globe of Earth-Two, such as:
- Mark the young orphan was the twin of the young Immortal Man that appeared when the Forgotten Heroes met their opposite number, the Forgotten Villains. Each had brief careers before they each perished saving humanity, both manifesting the same set of powers in that sole appearance.
- Samar the Jungle Man of Earth-Two's Africa had a counterpart in Animal Man (aka Buddy Baker) of Earth-One's Arizona, each with superhuman abilities tied to powers from the jungles similar to wild beasts. Note: Jungle Man's arch foe Karat possessed a helmet that created animal mutants much as that of Atom Master, a villain who battled the Superman and Batman of Earth-One, and later fought Animal Man, Immortal Man and the other Forgotten Heroes.
- Mark King the English treasure expert of Earth-Two was as intuitive and resourceful as investigator Mark Merlin of Earth-One, whose counterpart was Jock "Merlin" Kellogg prior to Merlin's exile to the planet Ra. When Merlin was transplanted to Ra his memories were placed into the revived Prince Raman who become the counterpart to Mark King. And just as Jock Kellog was aided by Helena, so too Mark was aided by Elsa Magnusson. While Mark Merlin's arch-foe was Doctor-Seven, Jock's close colleague was similarly powered Tor aka Jim Slade. Both Ra-Man and Immortal Man perished during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- Kirk Jason the ancient books editor of Earth-Two was like his counterpart on Earth-One geologist Kenneth Anderson men who gained telekinetic abilities due to their exposure from alien rocks, although while Jason was as his predecessors a hero, Anderson became the villain known as the Annihilator until Batgirl and Supergirl beat him.
- Anton Carter, the prominent former European paleontologist of Earth-Two was matched by Lucian Crawley of Earth-One, a young mutant who like Anton had mental abilities and aspired to be a masked superhero. However, unlike Carter who perished soon after his career began, Crawley used his mind control to strike back at the Justice League out of jealousy then retired.
- Immortal Man's next identity was unnamed when he appeared on Earth-One following Savage, but this cloned body was the Earth-Two doppleganger to T.O. Morrow who left Earth-One for Earth-Two to construct the Red Tornado to use against the Justice Society and Justice League before returning to his homeworld when Immortal Man perished. Both had telekinetic powers.
- Many others in the Immortal Man line, such as Hotep, Marcus of Rome, Ali Jaba, and Sir Longlance of Earth-Two who each carried Immortal Man's jewel mirrored those Earth-One individuals as Prince Ra-Man of Egypt, Diabolu of Babylon, the Olympian of Greece, and the Wild Huntsman of Germany
The original Immoral Man, Klarn Arg and arch-enemy Vandar Adg, existed during the same prehistoric era as mortal enemies. Klarn's ancient race on Earth-Two mirrored that of an ancient race on Krypton-One which predated Superman's own people.Originally the ruler of this people, when a meteor threaten his civilization the future Kryptonite Man ordered all save himself to be kept in suspended animation for twenty years to ensure salvation. However due to a malfunction, all save himself perished while he awoke centuries later. This was just prior to his home world self destructing, which he blamed on the current Kryptonians. Mutated by Kryptonite radiation from the space fragment he survived on for decades, Kryptonite Man fed himself from the storehouse found in the Seeders' ships. Seeking out Kryptonian survivors, he battled both Superman and Supergirl, a battled paralleled by Vandar aka Vandal Savage battling Superman and Power Girl a universe away. However, Kryptonite Man gave his life to save Earth-One from an invading fleet of Seedera, far more noble than Savage had been.
No comments:
Post a Comment