MovieChat Forums > The Alligator People (1959) Discussion > Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

posted 17 years ago by escalera-2
13 replies | jump to latest

I have not seen "The Alligator People",however, after reading the fine review it became obvious that this plot was the origin of Spider-Man's comic book foe "The Lizard". In the comic book, a one-armed scientist is fasinated by the way reptiles can grow a new tail if they lose their original. He injects himself with a serum derived from lizards and his arm grows back. The side-effects -- there's always side effects! -- change him into a lizard man!

Of course, Marvel comics always relied on movies for inspiration.

The origin of the Fantastic Four is a riff on "The Creeping Unknown"

The Hulk origin borrows from "The Amazing Colossal Man"

Dr. Doom comes from one of the older versions of "The Man in the Iron Mask"
and "The Face Behind the Mask" as well.

Ant Man may have been born after "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "THEM!"

X-Men's Cyclops is certainly based on Gort from "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

There are, most assuredly, others. And they did good with these inspirations.

[–] kimpunkrock 17 years ago

Thanks for the info!!!!
You should write a book about it the connection between Marvel Comics and classic Film.

Thanks again for the great comment!!

CHeers
kim

Check out my video below...

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=186977

The Truth is out there.

[–] escalera-2 17 years ago

Thank you for your kind comment. I am glad that you could appreciate my observations. Whether they were direct influences on the comic books named I cannot say for sure, but I think it is reasonable to assume, especially since a close examination of certain scenes in those movies I mentioned are reproduced almost exactly in the comic books.

A book would be nice, but perhaps a magazine article with pictures from the movies and panels from the comic books in question along side would suffice.

I do not know what magazine title would be interested in such a thing.

If I ever get the parts together, I'll make a post here.

Thank you, again, for your kind words and appreciation.

[–] kimpunkrock 17 years ago

Cool no problem.
You should post this post at the TCM website message board at

www.TCM.com. You can also email them and tell them your idea.

keep me posted.

kim

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=186977

The Truth is out there.

[–] exchronos 16 years ago

Actually, you needed to dig a little bit deeper!

Most of the early 1960s Marvel Characters can be attributed to early 1960s B-movies and a few classics. Your Lizard analogy is good, but there's some better ones for the others.

SPOILERS:

The Incredible Hulk...try watching "The Beast Of Yucca Flats". Tor Johnson plays a Russian scientist defecting to the US, and while on the run from KGB agents our CIA takes him to the west coast desert to hide him out. Lo and behold, the KGB show up, and chase the defected doc onto a nuclear testing site...and boom! Only Tor Johnson ssurvives, clothes ripped, wandering the desert as a scientist turned nuked "hulking" monster out for the kill...just as two boys get lost in the desert while on a family road trip!

The Thing...try watching "Hand Of Death". A man transforms into a hideous creature with a bumpy exterior and a touch that kills! So he puts on a trench coat and fedora to have a night on the town scaring people! He literally looks like the Thing who wore similar clothes on occasion!

Invisible Girl...try "The Invisible Woman", a 1940 entry in Universal's Invisible Man series of films.

Spiderman? Well, there's "Earth VS The Spider", or "Mesa Of Lost Women"...which has Spider Women actually!

Sincerely,
Exchronos

[–] escalera-2 16 years ago

I am not familiar with "Hand of Death". I'll look it up.

They were just coming books and they needed a bit of inspiration from some source. Superman seems to take it from the Bible, specifically Moses being placed into the basket to save his life, just like Jor-el and Lara did with young Kal-el in the rocket.

Batman, everyone knows by now, Ant-Man I'd guess is from "THEM!", the imagery at least. I suppose it is still being done.

If The Hulk was inspired by "Beast of Yucca Flats", then the idea was only improved upon.

Thanks for your views.

(I've re-entered this posting after viewing the IMDb listing for "Hand of Death" (1962) and --boy, howdy! -- you are spot on with that entry)

http://www.impawards.com/1962/hand_of_death.html

Judging from the movie poster on the above site, Jack Kirby definately used this as his source!

[–] exchronos 16 years ago

True, Hulk was an improvement, but the similarities in that film's plot and the Hulk's origin are quite convincing, even if the film is hardly watchable...even by the standards of its day! Yet by using films that were in theaters back then but nowadays are hard to find or are low quality B-movies, nobody really watches them to make the connection. Oh, and Professor X as a child probably came from "Village Of The Damned", which may have also inspired mutant teens as well.

Sincerely,
Exchronos

[–] escalera-2 16 years ago

Once, again, we are in argreement regarding "Village.." Although I was thinking about the other X-Man, Marvel Girl.

There are certainly others.

Thanks for that.

[–] RIP_IMDb 9 years ago

The Hulk could also be from either Indestructible Man (1956) or Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indestructible_Manhttp://tcm.com/tcmdb/title/26954/Indestructible-Man[/url]http:rottentomatoes.com/m/indestructible_man

http://tcm.com/this-month/article.html?id=582020|598062[url]http://jabootu.net/?p=6070http:dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4096dang.html

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[–] escalera-2 9 years ago

I'm sure the old Marvel artists and other comic book artists went to the movies quite a bit and looked in on sci-fi and horror titles for inspiration.

The looks of the original Captain Marvel were based on popular film actor, Fred MacMurray. That's a well-known fact.

Thanks for your take, Skeletor-Master_of_the_Universe.

PS
You know, Skelator resembles Wally Wood's 1965 character, Mister Fear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Fear#/media/File:Mrfear.jpg

"Please use elevator, stairs stuck between floors."

[–] RIP_IMDb 9 years ago



I'll let you know when I come-up with a new signature, .

[–] pariah-15 16 years ago

Stan Lee has said Spider-Man was inspired by an old radio program he listened to as a kid, "The Spider"; he asked one of the staff artists (presumably Steve Ditko) to sketch a spider-themed hero and then wrote an origin story around it.

[–] zeta1983-1 15 years ago

I thought of the lizard too and did think of cyclops with Gort as well, now that you mention it. I heard Stan Lee originally thought of mutants just being the next stage in evolution due to genetics cause it became difficult to keep thinking of origins for super heroes and villains. Mutation just became a new naturally evolving condition. The conflict was supposed to mirror the civil rights issues going on at the time (In 1963).

[–] vpilutis 15 years ago

Years before Spider-Man there was THE FLY who like Capt Marvel was at first a boy (Tommy Troy) who would rub a magic ring and say "I wish I were THE FLY" and he would become the adult hero. In later issues he was now a man who also had the powers of other bugs as well as a fly's. That same company Archie Comic Publications also had "The Shield" which only lasted two issues the reason being I guess he looked and got his powers (From the feds)like Capt America.

Now some of Marvel heroes are rip offs from DC i.e.

Quicksilver is the Flash
Hawkeye is Green Arrow
AntMan is "The silver age The Atom"

Now on the other hand DC's Aquaman is a rip off of Marvel's Sub-Mariner

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