5. Lord Hikiji and Lord Hebi



They are the head and hand of Clan Hikiji (which is somewhat odd, since Hebi, "the hand", is a snake and doesn't actually have any limb).

Lord Hikiji is the man who caused the most grief to Miyamoto Usagi. He defeated Usagi's master, Lord Mifune, forcing the samurai to become a ronin; he killed Usagi's father; he also left Usagi with a facial scar that reminds our hero of what he lost whenever he looks at his reflection.

Hikiji is a cunning strategist, who will stop at nothing to become Japan's shogun; he plays a very long game, and his ruthless ways are unencumbered by anything resembling kindness, honesty or decency. He is literally ready to consider any action that would advance his position.

But a strategist is no good if there's no one to execute his orders. Lord Hebi, an ophidian samurai, is an ever resourceful servant, devoted to the extreme. Hikiji would never get caught doing anything illegal or even shady; not for him are dealings with spies, ninja clans or saboteurs. That is the province of Hebi, who maintains a huige network of agents and executes his master's will with cold-blooded efficiency.

It is because of Stan Sakai's masterful depiction of the bond between the two that the death of Lord Hikiji in the out-of-continuity story Senso (which is a Usagi - War of the Worlds mash-up) was so powerful. It is said that the better samurai is not the one who dutifully serves a good master, but the one who dutifully serves a bad one. If so, Hebi could be the best samurai of them all.

5. Dr. Doom and the Sub-Mariner



My first complete series review thread here, Bad Tidings, was devoted to Marvel's mid-70's series, SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP, so how could I not include the leads of that uneven-but-never-uninteresting run here in this year's CCC?

You may well argue, as did readers of the day, that Namor didn't merit "super-villain" status, but there's no arguing against the logo, people! Doctor Doom was one of my favorite villains early on. I think my first exposure to him was in MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #4, the cover logo of which promoted Doom (along with the Thing and the Silver Surfer) as one of the three leads, rather than the Fantastic Four, from whose comic the interior was reprinted. But I've established the significance of logo several times already this year, so even if Doom's billing here wasn't quite as formal as I'd like, it counted in my 12-year-old mind.

Namor took a lot longer to grow on me, but he would eventually become one of my favorite Marvel characters, which he remains to this day. The pairing of these two as a highly unstable but menacing team made sense to me, both of them royalty dealing with tragic circumstances. What I found most fascinating was that unlike more carefully calculated teams, this pairing forced together very similar personalities rather than intentionally contrasting ones. Both were haughty, boastful, aggressive men, who should have been in opposition according to their nature, constantly trying to get the upper hand on one another, but men of honor, in their own way, bound by oath, obligated to the letter of their pact. Yes, it was better in concept than in execution, which we could say about many of this year's entries, but in comics, an intriguing concept can often make up for a flawed production, and for me, S-V T-U did just that, thanks to this memorable and menacing match-up!

5. The Brotherhood of Evil (Silver Age version, of course)

"The League of Hate"*

 

Damn, was Arnold Drake ahead of his time or what! I have always sung the outcast praises of the Doom Patrol, the Marvel heroes of 1960’s DC Comics. If you don’t know how fascinating a team and series Drake created, dig around here or elsewhere to find out; you’ll realize how different and unique the DP was.

It’s no wonder that Drake’s gallery of villains for the Doom Patrol was just as imaginative and different from the norm; two of the DP’s nemeses have made my list, the Brotherhood of Evil and another to come (day still TBD). The Brotherhood (“the most powerful crime syndicate in the world”) would be memorable if only because of its membership, which numbers only one humanoid among its ranks. That would be Madame Rouge (who never wore red), is a French schoolteacher who combines the stretching powers of Elasti-Girl with the shape-changing talents of Plastic Man. Perhaps her shape-changing abilities, which are given to her courtesy her the genius and surgical skills of her compatriots, are a clue to her rather unsettled personality, which as the series evolved, saw her develop a Jekyll-Hyde personality. Worse yet for the DP, when she and the Chief fell in love, it caused many a Yoko moment for the always fractious team of mutants.

The two other members were even less conventional: M’sieu Mallah, the machine-gun wielding super-intelligent gorilla who always came off as even more ticked off than Gorilla Grodd, who was one of the notably angry young apes in the DC ape-iary. M’sieu, a gorilla selected by a French scientist (was Drake a Francophone?) for its superior strength and athletic skill, was then given an IQ of 178 “through secret teaching and shock treatments.” It is Mallah who removes Brain’s brain from his never seen body and who follows brain’s instructions to perform the procedure that gives Mme. Rouge her super-powers, a scene chillingly depicted above by the great Bruno Premiani.

And who was the French scientist who pulled off that feat? He is often known simply as “Brain,” sometimes “The Brain,” but not Mr. Brain, or Dr. Brain, or Frenchy the Brain. (Though perhaps his real name is Le Cerveau.) With Brain, what you see is what you get. He/it/she(?) is simply a brain “encased in liquid” whom Mallah and Rouge both serve without question. It matters not that his plots and schemes are always overly intricate; Brain seems to be crazy about MacGuffins, but they do make the stories tons of fun.

I loved reading the Doom Patrol stories, which I’m betting were as outré, out there, absurd and meta as anything Grant Morrison ever wrote (he took the DP on is own long run of absurdity in a revival of the title), but with one charming plus: Drake wasn’t being self-consciously weird because someone else had laid the ground work decades before. He was simply writing stories and letting the characters take him for the ride, not vice versa.

The B of E were the DP’s oddball rivals in what some might consider the oddball corner of the Silver Age DC Universe. By me, though, the two teams were both more believable as characters than most of the straight DC Universe.

(And without spoiling anything, I would recommend reading the final issue of the run, Doom Patrol 121, which is justly celebrated for how beautifully the series was ended on the parts of the heroes, but also includes a unique twist on the fate of their arch-nemeses.)

*Captain America Comics #49 (1945)

Nice. I somehow failed to consider my favorite comic series.

I couldn't think of anything from Usagi and now I can't believe I missed these two.

Chalk me up as another guy who should've voted for Usagi.