#misterdoc elementalchemy

[sarksarkos]

Showcase '58: Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist.

This is Showcase #15, introducing Space Ranger, a brand new sci-fi adventure hero! I have nothing to say about him. Welcome to the gutters, I guess?

DC Showcase was created to introduce new characters to their universe, and, as with all things, they can't all be winners. Issues #11-12 of Showcase were more stories about the Challengers of the Unknown. The Challengers would get spun off into their own book later in the year, so we'll talk about them in one big bunch. Issues #13-14 were more Flash stories, which we'll talk about later in this post. Issues #15-16 were about a new hero, known as Space Ranger.

DC had a few space characters all sort of bopping around in a vague future timeline. These were mostly in sci-fi anthology books like Strange Adventures, Tales of the Unexpected, and Mystery in Space. These included characters like the Knights of the Galaxy, Captain Comet, and Space Cabbie. They don't have a lot of relevance to the superhero sector of DC, and, if I'm being honest, they're not really my cup of tea either.

DC's space stories in the silver age have always struck me as a bit hokey. There isn't a sense that this is a real universe where people live. Maybe it's a bit of a hard ask, as this comic predates Star Trek by eight years, but that show had strong characterization and interstellar homoeroticism to buoy up its planet of the week shenanigans. These comics just don't have that, at least not in my opinion.

The flash comics are as solid as ever, but the storyline for these two issues is... weird. First there are a few one-shots. The first one, Around the World in 80 Minutes, is a fun Jules Verne take with Flash running around the world saving lives and still getting back home in time for his date with Iris West. The second, Giants of the Time-World is... it's nonsense. There's a genre of story that's basically "we don't know what will happen, so anything could happen" and it's just an excuse to not think about what you're actually writing. Very common in silver age comics. Not a fan of it.

What I really want to talk about is the two-parter, "Master of the Elements" and "The Man who Changed the Earth." The first part introduces Mr. Element, a science-based villain who uses the chemical elements as his gimmick. He uses super-hard silicon and sodium explosives. It's not really made explicit if he's increasing their chemical properties to supervillainous levels but that seems to be what happens. Flash has to use his own chemistry knowledge to find a way around his amped-up materials.

AND THEN -

Mr. Element just makes up his own element, which he calls "elemento," and claims is a form of "magnetic light." That's just... you can't just do that! If your gimmick is based on chemistry, you have to actually use chemistry! You can't just start making up terrible new science! God, this is... well, honestly, this is about normal for the Flash, but it still makes my eyeballs boil.

The very next issue, Mr. Element breaks out of jail and decides to change his whole superhero persona. He's got a new costume, a new modus operandi, and a new name: Doctor Alchemy. I feel like each of his supervillain identities have about half of a good thing going. Like Mr. Element had a good costume but a stupid name, and Doctor Alchemy is the reverse of that. Switching identities would actually be a recurring thing for the character. If only he had learned to to the fusion dance.

This massive change in characterization was because, through random chance, his cellmate turned out to be the owner of a "lucky stone" which turned out to be - and I hope you're sitting down for this - the Philosopher's Stone! Like from the animes! Not only is this stone real, it's as easy to use as a remote control, and the very first thing Doctor Element does is turn lead into gold!

I repeat that, because I want you all to see this, the very first thing that Mister Alchemy does with this magical transmutation stone that an entire branch of science was unable to find, but you found in this random thug's junk drawer, was turn lead into gold. And it's implied that that isn't even that hard to do! He was able to do even weirder stuff with it after a single training montage!

And while he talks a game about changing the earth, the only thing that Doctor Mister wants to do with his Infinite Wealth Stone is rob banks.

I talked about how Captain Cold worked because he was the kind of villain who would just rob a bank, and how that became the basis of his character as just a thug with a freeze ray? This feels like the opposite. This is a guy who was gifted nigh-limitless power and should be using his abilities to take over the world, but instead he just wants to steal money that is by all rights worthless to him.

Then again, flash just effortlessly catches up to this putz and throws his pet rock into space so maybe he was never going to succeed.

It's wild to me how they came up with this idea for the character and then scrapped all that completely and rebuilt him from the ground up for the very next issue. I honestly wish they had kept going with that, actually. Like, every time he appears he has a totally new gimmick and powers and their link to chemistry or the elements grow more and more tenuous.

Anyway, comics sure are good, aren't they? Next time, we look at World's finest, the Challengers of the Unknown, and the first Earth-One appearance of DC's second or third most popular unpowered vigilante. Until next time!