Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Crossover Cover: The Spy Who Haunted Me


Edwin Drood is chosen to compete against several other agents to solve a series of mysteries; the winner will gain all the secrets of Alexander King, the legendary Independent Agent. Appearing or mentioned are: Vril Power, Inc. (a reference to Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race); the Salvation Army Sisterhood, Harry Fabulous, the London Knights, the Walking Man, John Taylor, Walker, the Authorities, the Collector, Strangefellows, Cathy Barnett, and Lilith (all from Green's Nightside series); the Tracey Brothers (from the TV series Thunderbirds, which probably takes place in an alternate future; in the show, their name is spelled "Tracy"); MI13 and Black Air (the CU equivalents of the British intelligence groups seen in the Marvel Universe); Leo Morn (from Green's novel Drinking Midnight Wine); smoked black centipede meat (from William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch); full-strength Hyde (from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Martian red weed and Martians on huge metal tripods with metal claws, heat rays, and poisonous black smoke; (from H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds); Universal Exports (from Ian Fleming's James Bond books); Oz (from the novels by L. Frank Baum); SAS combat sorcerers (from Warren Ellis' comic book Gravel); Shadows Fall (from Green's novel of the same name); Oberon and Titania, Peaseblossom, Puck, Mustardseed, Cobweb, and Moth (from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream); the Djinn Jeannie (from the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie); the Traveling Doctor (aka Doctor Who); the Old Wolf of Kabul (Bill Sampson, a British comic book character who debuted in the 1920s as the Wolf of Kabul); a small statuette of a black bird (the Maltese Falcon); two Pickman paintings (from Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model"); several copies of the Painting that Devoured Paris (a CU version of the Painting That Ate Paris from Grant Morrison's run on the superhero team comic book Doom Patrol); a stuffed Morlock (from Wells' The Time Machine); a mummified monkey’s paw (from W.W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw"); a small black lacquered puzzle box (the Lament Configuration, from the Hellraiser film series); the talking beavers of Narnia (from C.S. Lewis' novels); Frankenstein monsters (from Mary Shelley's novel); the Lone Ranger and Tonto (from the classic radio series); Crouch End Towen (the fictional Lovecraftian dark side of the real London neighborhood Crouch End, from Stephen King's story "Crouch End"; use of a sword-umbrella as an old tradition in the British spy game (a reference to John Steed from the TV series The Avengers); and Queen Mab (from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.)

8 comments:

  1. A wish-granting monkey's paw appeared in the Rick and Morty episode "The Something Ricked this Way Comes." As a matter of fact, it's sold at Needful Things.

    http://rickandmorty.wikia.com/wiki/Needful_Things

    The show, about a Mad Scientist and his grandson, would probably be considered an AU. Actually, the first half of the season has to be because Rick manages to turn the entire world into deformed monsters and then they skip out to a parallel earth. Even the second half, people seem kind of nonplussed by the Devil and space aliens et cetera.

    The episode used to be on adultswim.com but it's gone. Though, it will probably be back in a few days.

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  2. What's the context of the Queen Mab reference? I ask because there's also a Queen Mab in the Dresden Files: http://dresdenfiles.wikia.com/wiki/Mab

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  3. Queen Mab appears prominently in the book. She has regained the throne from Oberon and Titania, and has designs on taking over our world, but Eddie manages to talk her down.

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  4. Hi Sean, I don't recall Queen Mab being in Romeo and Juliet, I thought she was in A Midsummer's Night's Dream.

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  5. There's varying interpretations of supernatural characters in various works in the CU especially the mythical characters. Oberon and Titania also showed up in Gargoyles (Greg Weisman, the show's creator, had plans for Mab as well.). It's been debated whether Titania and Oberon could be considered created by Shakespeare or preexisting. (I think the evidence weighs to they probably existed before but Shakespeare popularized them.)

    I guess we have to write these up to fictionalization by the authors.

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  6. Brad, nope, she's definitely from Romeo and Juliet, though she's only mentioned, and doesn't actually appear.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Mab

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  7. It had been awhile since I read Romeo and Juliet. Thanks for that.

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  8. If anybody cares, the episode of Rick and Morty I talked about in a previous post in now on adultswim.com

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