In “Everyone”, Cook, Freddie and JJ vie for Effy’s attention after meeting her the morning before college starts. Effy sets Cook and Freddie a challenge, whoever breaks the college rules gets to “know her better”. Cook breaks the rules, in the process starting a fire. His reward is sex with Effy in the nurse’s office.

In “Cook”, Freddie gets a call from Karen who is at her friend, Kayleigh’s, engagement party. Cook rounds the gang up and they head over there uninvited. Cook causes a lot of trouble upon arrival and Freddie tells him that he can’t take care of him anymore.

In “Freddie”, Freddie, watches as Karen reaches the final of a TV talent show to find a new member of fictional girl group Da Sexxbombz. He is forced to go along with the dramatic story she and their father are spinning about their supposed deceased mother, all to look good in front of the cameras. If this was not bad enough, living in the shadow of the increasingly reckless Cook is becoming too much to bear. Effy arrives in Freddie’s garden and asks to be allowed into his shed. Inside, the two share a spliff, but are quickly joined by the arrival of Cook and JJ. When Cook invites Effy to leave to have sex with him, she sarcastically rebuffs him, causing him to angrily insist that she leave. Afterward, as Freddie returns a bracelet to her, he suggests that they would be “good together”. Effy denies this by claiming she would break his heart. Later in the episode, Freddie seeks out Effy at the water-park, where she is escaping from her turbulent home situation. The two share a passionate kiss mid-water, where Freddie tells her how he feels about her. Nevertheless, by the end of the episode Effy has returned to Cook, and she and Cook watch from her bedroom window as Freddie watches from below.

In “JJ”, JJ sees his mother, Cecilia, overwhelmed by all of his issues and blames himself. He calls Cook to tell him how he feels, but Cook is preoccupied with having sex with a girl who JJ assumes is Effy. When he visits Effy, however, she reveals that she has not seen Cook in days. He asks her to leave Freddie and Cook alone; she refuses but offers to be his friend. JJ then visits Cook and discovers that he is having sex with Pandora. Pretending not to have seen this, he then confronts Cook about ruining their friendship with Freddie. Cook tells JJ that he loves him and brings JJ with him to buy drugs. They are almost arrested and, after running from the police, JJ pressures Cook into taking his prescription drugs instead before they meet their friends at a club. JJ and Cook arrive and Thomas Tomone (Merveille Lukeba) lets them into the club, announcing that Emily is already inside. Cook gets into a fight on the dancefloor and Freddie moves in to help when he discovers that JJ gave Cook his prescription drugs. Cook, under the influence of JJ’s drugs, is compelled to tell the truth and confesses that Effy loves Freddie. Cook says that he loves Effy, but knows his feelings are not reciprocated and that is why he is having an affair with Pandora.

In “Effy”, he begins a sexual relationship with Katie, to Effy’s jealousy. Later, at the gang’s camping trip, he seems to grow distant from Katie, with both Effy and Katie noticing. Unknown to him, Katie confront Effy (who is experiencing a bad trip) and after a fight, Katie gets knocked unconscious. Afterwords, Effy wanders back to the campsite when she runs into Freddie. After a few tense moments, they have sex for the first time.

Eventually, Katie is found and taken to hospital, where Freddie — among others — learn that Effy hit Katie (but not the reasons why), thus turning against Effy for thinking she attacked Katie without merit.

In “Katie and Emily”, The twins run into Freddie and JJ Jones while trying on dresses. JJ reveals to Emily that he told Freddie that he had sex with her, and Freddie inadvertently tells Katie, who was unaware of this. She guilts Freddie into accompanying her to the ball and volunteers Emily to go with JJ.

In “Finale”, Effy grows worried for Cook when she sees how his father manipulates him, prompting her to call Freddie for help — and telling him that she loves him shortly before hanging up. When Freddie and JJ arrive, they decide that the fate of the boys’ relationships with Effy should be decided by the small town’s race. JJ, who wins the race, takes charge and demands that they solve their problems once and for all, forcing both boys to admit that they each love Effy and telling her that she must choose between them. Although Effy doesn’t say anything, her “look says it all” when her gaze lingers over Freddie, prompting Cook to leave in a fury. After this, Freddie and Effy talk, and sleep together. Towards the end of the episode Cook goes to his fathers boat hoping to leave with him, his father tells him he never wanted him the first place, and threatens to burn his face off if he doesn’t leave. Freddie arrives and knocks him unconscious before he can do anything. Freddie asks Cook to say its okay for him to be with Effy, Cook says he can’t do it because he loves her and he’s sorry. JJ and Effy arrive, followed by the towns people hoping to claim Cooks dads boat, they quickly set sail. Cooks dad awakes to them setting sail, and upon realises that his boat is safe shouts “I’m Cook” and in antagonistic manner at the people who technically now own the boat. Cook then shouts at his father “No, I’m Cook” and pushes him off the boat. The episode ends with the problem seemingly unresolved and Freddie asking “So, what do we do now?”

Series 4

In “Thomas”, The gang, excluding Effy, witness the suicide of a teenage girl, Sophia, after she had taken drugs. The police launch an investigation into the death.

In “Emily”, Effy returns to college, sits next to Freddie and steals one of his chips. They talk for a while and Effy reveals that it’s him she was thinking about all summer. She then hugs Cook while Freddie watches. Emily then asks Freddie “can you can trust her?”. Later at a party Effy is dancing with Freddie and kisses him. Cook sees this and lashes out at a fellow party-goer and headbutts JJ. Effy and Freddie sees him fighting and leave.

In “Cook”, Effy and Freddie kiss and is overseen by Cook who tells Freddie to fuck off when he is expelled. Cook visits his mother’s art exhibit and is shocked to learn that she had slept with Freddie. Freddie admits Ruth gave him a blow job at Cook’s 15th birthday party and pleads for Cook to stop acting out. Effy comes to see Cook in prison and tells him she loves Freddie. He asks her “how is the love?”. Effy replies saying that it messes with your head but she’s giving it a go.

In “Freddie”, Freddie and Effy live a hedonistic lifestyle in the Stonem house with Anthea gone. Freddie’s education suffers and when he tells Effy this, they argue. Freddie meets a counsellor about his unfinished coursework. Freddie returns to see Effy sticking newspaper cuttings about death onto the wall. Freddie becomes concerned about Effy’s psychotic behaviour. He talks to his grandfather, Norman, and becomes determined not to make mistakes with Effy like he perceived his father made with his deceased mother. Freddie takes Effy outside in an effort to cheer her up, but she becomes frightened. On their way home, Freddie mistakenly rides their rented rickshaw into a street festival where Effy panics. Katie finds her and takes her to Freddie; they then go to Norman’s nursing home. He convinces Freddie that Effy needs clinical help. Freddie finds Effy lying in the toilets with her wrists slashed from attempted suicide. In the hospital, Anthea tells Freddie they need to help Effy but Freddie states that Effy needs her mother, not him. He destroys the cuttings in the Stonem house only for Cook to appear. He convinces Freddie not to give up on Effy.

In “Effy”, Effy returns home after her near suicide attempt, with her room completed clean and she and her mother have an awkward conversation. She unpacks and then goes to visit Freddie, who is very excited to see her. Inside Freddie’s room, she and Freddie talk. He asks her why he wasn’t allowed to see her, to which she replied that Foster had forbidden anyone from seeing her, as it was part of her treatment. When Freddie asks what did Foster do that was so special, Effy replies that he took away all her bad memories and made them good. Freddie is angry, finding out that Effy had bad memories of him. Effy consoles him, stating that now that all the bad memories were taken away, all she feels for Freddie is love. Later, the gang has thrown a party to celebrate getting their A-Level results. As part of the party, everyone reads out their scores, with the exception of Effy. Effy stands up and tells the gang that is doesn’t matter. She tells that gang that although she thinks that they are all great, she’s had enough. She then goes home and takes her pills, and sees Freddie’s name disappear from her white board. Effy is then seen in another session with Foster, and he is doing some hypnosis techniques on her. However, these techniques are being used to erase her friends from her memory, as Foster is “taking” those memories away. The next morning, Freddie confronts Effy and they get into an argument. Effy tells him that she went mad when she was with him, but Freddie says that that’s what loves supposed to do. She tells Freddie that everyone needs to make sacrifices, and that everyone is in a different place now. She tells everyone that she is saying goodbye, and leaves. The next morning, she is at a park, and Cook sits on the bench next to her. As they are talking, Cook mentions that Freddie calls him about her (and calls her “Ef”). Effy looks confused, asking who “Ef” is. It turns out that Foster has been making Effy forget everyone she ever loved, thus once Effy remembers everything and tells Cook to get her to Freddie.

She passes out, and when she wakes up, apologizes to Freddie and they reconcile. She tells him the voices have started up again, but Freddie says they’ll handle it together. When Foster enters the Effy’s room, she freaks out and tells Freddie she doesn’t want Foster to be her shrink anymore. Freddie runs him off and he holds her hand until she falls asleep, this is the last time she ever sees him.

Death

Unknown to everyone, John Foster is obsessed with Effy and was using his”alternative” methods in order to keep her (making her forget everyone else she ever loved). Because of this, Freddie, after getting a phone call from Foster, goes and confronts Foster without telling anyone. When he reaches Foster’s house, he yells at Foster to leave Effy alone and that no one wants him around her. Foster pretends to be okay with this, and promises to back off. However, when Freddie leaves to open the door of the room, he finds it locked. Foster, meanwhile, comes up behind him with a baseball bat and proceeds to beat him.

At the end of the final episode of series 4, Cook follows John Foster to his home and finds Freddie’s belongings coated in blood and stashed away in a box. Cook is confronted by John Foster and it is revealed that Freddie had been murdered.

Significantly, Freddie plays the only supernatural occurance in all of the Skins series, as his ghost is often implied to be around, e.g. Effy hearing his voice, a written message in his notebook that Cook reads “HE WANTS TO HURT HER”, and Cook also hearing Freddie’s voice to get out of Foster’s house just before their confrontation.

Category:Skins characters
Adapted from the Wikipedia article Freddie Mclair (Skins character), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Fancy Crane was born under the sign of Capricorn (December 22–January 19) in 1980 to Julian Linus Crane, an executive at Crane Industries and the eldest son of ruthless multi-billionaire Alistair Ephraim Crane and his first wife, Katherine Crane (née Barrett), and Ivy Crane (née Winthrop), a socialite and the daughter of the late former Governor Harrison Winthrop and his wife, the late Helen Winthrop (née Revere-Mott-Beaton). Fancy is the scion of numerous wealthy, prominent families that immigrated to North America before the American Revolutionary War — her paternal grandfather is a descendant of William Ephraim Crane, a magistrate who ordered Tabitha Lenox’s execution in 1693, sparking Tabitha’s vendetta against the Crane family, and her maternal grandmother was a descendant of Paul Revere. Fancy is largely of English descent, with some French ancestry, and was brought up, to some degree, as a Roman Catholic.

Fancy was raised as the second of four children — Ethan Crane (later Winthrop), who was revealed to be her maternal half-brother in 2001, is about five years her senior, while Fox Crane and Pretty Crane are a few years her junior. While they were raised in the lap of luxury, the Crane siblings, excluding Ethan, had a dysfunctional childhood, with Ivy admitting that her youngest three children had a father who was “either absent or intoxicated” and a mother “who just didn’t care”. Ivy favored Ethan over her other children because he was the son of her “true love”, Sam Bennett, and not her husband, whom she loathed, and Fancy, as well as her younger siblings, came to resent their mother for this. Though younger brother Fox is equally angry with Julian, Fancy never expresses the same sort of bitterness against her father, whom she remembers taking her and best friend Esme Vanderheusen out for ice cream when they were in the third grade.

Despite being virtually ignored by her parents during her formative years, Fancy did fare better than her younger siblings; since her birth, Fancy has been her grandfather Alistair’s favorite relative — Alistair believes her to be the only “true Crane” of all of his descendants. For some twenty-five years, Alistair was consistently the only person upon whom Fancy could depend for love and support, and he, in many ways, was more of a father to her than Julian — when she was seven, it was Alistair, and not Julian and Ivy, whom she begged for the wild, untamed Arabian stallion she wanted so badly. Alistair was very protective of his firstborn granddaughter — not even Albert II, Prince of Monaco would have made a suitable husband for his little girl — and he shielded her from his malevolent, vindictive side, which the rest of their family knew to be his true nature. Fancy actually unwittingly brought Alistair’s wrath down on others several times, including one time as a child when a boy at the playground hurt her feelings; Fancy later cried to her grandfather about the boy’s taunts, and Alistair, in turn, saw that the boy’s parents lost their jobs, forcing the couple to leave Harmony with their son.

Alistair’s doting was never able to fully satiate Fancy’s need to feel wanted and loved by her parents, however. When Fancy was about ten, Julian and Ivy forgot to send for their daughter at Christmastime, leaving her all alone at boarding school. Already secure in her status as a Crane, Fancy called a limo to take her to the mansion in Harmony, but was deeply crushed to find that her parents and siblings had left town for the holidays without her. Fancy’s eventual savior was this time Ethan, who arrived with a large bag of presents for his younger sister; even as an adult, Fancy remains close to her elder brother.

As a teenager, Fancy was wild and rebellious; her thirteenth birthday party was canceled five minutes before its designated start time after she and her sister stole the caterer’s van and drove it halfway to neighboring Castleton. She was also pulled over by future police chief Sam Bennett at least once for driving over the speed limit and without a license after she took her parents’ Ferrari for a joyride at age fourteen. The majority of Fancy’s most serious infractions occurred while with Esme Vanderheusen, who became her best friend when they met in boarding school. Despite the fact that they were both wild and wealthy, Esme insists that Fancy never engaged in recreational drug use. Partying and rebellion did not fulfill Fancy, however, and she frequently wished for a more “normal” life; Fancy’s favorite book as an adolescent was ”Dreams of a Varsity Cheerleader”, and she longed to trade her life at her all-girls boarding school for the heroine’s coeducational public high school.

Both Fancy’s childhood and teenage years were marked by a sometimes competitive relationship with her younger sister, Pretty. The girls’ aunt Sheridan offers an anecdote in January 2007 in which she accuses Fancy of stealing Pretty’s date one Labor Day by pretending to sprain her ankle on the family’s yacht. According to her account, Fancy, not Pretty, ended up dating the country-club boy, then breaking up with him after a week once she was satisfied that she had beaten her sister; Fancy, however, vehemently denies that the situation occurred as her aunt outlines. Sometime after this incident, Fancy and Pretty were involved in a physical altercation with one another — Pretty claims that Fancy was jealous of her relationship with a boy named Harrison, while Fancy maintains that Pretty had been choking her — in which Fancy poured cyanuric acid on the right side of her sister’s face. Though Fancy claims that she acted in self-defense and was unaware of the bottle’s contents, the chemicals nonetheless apparently left the side of Pretty’s face heavily scarred, and Pretty has never forgiven her sister, maintaining her belief that Fancy acted to prevent another man from ever preferring Pretty over herself.

Sometime before July 1999, Fancy departed Harmony for a prestigious school, either boarding or a university, and did not return until June 2005. Fancy did eventually make it to college, but, according to Ivy, she has yet to complete her degree. It was originally said in 2005 that Fancy later made her way to Italy with her sister sometime in 2004 or 2005 — the two parting ways after Pretty fell in love with an Italian nobleman — though the revelation of Fancy and Pretty’s feud in 2007 seems to have created a retcon.

Relationship with Noah=

Beginnings in Las Vegas and progression in Harmony, 2005

Fancy is first introduced in May 2005 as a character à la Paris Hilton — a spoiled, selfish “princess” who, in furtherance of this comparison, owns a small dog and has supposedly dated two of Hilton’s ex-boyfriends. She is partying in Las Vegas with her friend, Veronica, when she sets her sights on Noah Bennett, who is making his living by gambling and operating under the alias of Ned. Noah rejects Fancy’s advances, however, mistaking her for a prostitute and infuriating the heiress. Noah and Fancy meet again later that night when she seeks solace in what she believes to be an unfinished room from an attempted rapist. Shortly thereafter, the hotel staff discover that Noah has been squatting and attempt to apprehend the pair. In one room, the two find a suitcase full of money — and the corpse of Fancy’s attempted rapist. Spooked, the two give the money to two nuns and leave Vegas for home — unaware that both call the New England town of Harmony home.

Back in Harmony, Fancy discovers Noah’s true identity, and vice versa, and she complains to Alistair about her Vegas companion; Alistair, furious at his granddaughter’s treatment at Noah’s hands, declares war on the Bennett family by having Sam Bennett fired from his position as chief of police. Noah is furious with Fancy, but protects her from the Las Vegas mobsters and saves her during the summer 2005 Harmony tsunami. During the disaster storyline, the two are thrown together in a fight for survival once more, and actress Emily Harper notes that it is during this experience that “Fancy finally admits to herself her true feelings about Noah”. This progress is dashed, however, when Fancy finds a letter from Noah’s ex-girlfriend, Maya Chinn, in Noah’s wallet. In the letter, Maya reminds Noah that he’d claimed that he’d never love another girl like he’d loved her, leaving Fancy devastated. When Noah leaves town to protect his family from his Las Vegas enemies, unaware that Alistair has taken care of the men, Fancy reluctantly obeys her mother’s wishes and chases after him, and the two reconnect.

Noah and Fancy are about to consummate their relationship at Sheridan’s cottage when Alistair arrives. Unaware that Noah is hiding in the other room, he lectures his granddaughter, warning her to stay away from “commoners” like Noah Bennett. Fancy placates her grandfather, but Noah believes that her hurtful words are truthful and angrily leaves. Later that night, he informs Fancy that they are over. After a date with Edmund Sinclair, both one of Noah’s friends from elementary and middle school and the grandson of one of Alistair’s business associates, Noah and Fancy overcome their misunderstandings and have sex on the beach. Unbeknownst to the couple, Alistair is watching them from the bushes; in retaliation, he plants drugs and a gun in Noah’s car, resulting in Noah’s arrest. Fancy briefly breaks up with Noah, hoping to save him from her grandfather’s wrath, but both eventually decide to find strength in their love.

Upon learning that Alistair has removed her from his will following his marriage to Theresa and adoption of Little Ethan, Fancy is devastated. Though she is sure that a future with Noah is more important than the Crane billions, Fancy has difficulty adjusting to the idea of being “poor” and having to work for a living. Fancy exploits her position as Alistair’s favorite to have him offer Noah a position at Crane Industries, but Noah is furious that Fancy would suggest such a thing, and they break up again.

Fancy begins to work at Crane Industries as head of the style division, but not even work can distract her from missing Noah. When her best friend, Esme Vanderheusen, visits Harmony and sets her sights on Noah, Fancy becomes so jealous that she tricks Esme into leaving town and reunites with Noah. Still, the couple is unable to find happiness when Fancy begins to suspect Noah of infidelity. Fancy follows her lover one December evening and finds him and Theresa at one of the Crane cabins with her and Noah’s mutual comatose half-brother, Ethan, who is to be removed from life support. Furious with Noah’s actions, which defy Ethan’s own wishes, Fancy breaks up with Noah once more. Remembering a Christmas past, however, when only Ethan had remembered her forgotten at boarding school, Fancy decides to refrain from calling the police until after Christmas. The police find Ethan, though, and Fancy, Theresa, and Noah are all arrested. Alistair bails his wife and granddaughter out of jail, and Fancy, having forgiven Noah, arranges for them to spend Christmas Eve together at the jail.

Disintegration, 2006

Noah is eventually released from jail, but the couple’s relationship is later dealt a severe blow when Noah calls out the name of his ex-girlfriend, Maya, while in bed with Fancy. Fancy, furious, breaks up with Noah when he refuses to come clean about his past. Noah, eager to fix his relationship, is prepared to come clean with Fancy, but when Maya, who has returned to Harmony, is attacked on the wharf due to a murder that she and Noah had witnessed in college, Noah decides to clam up; Fancy reiterates the dissolution of their relationship. Fancy is miserable without Noah, though, and agrees to take him back on one condition — that he tell her about his past with Maya. Noah is prepared to do so when a car crashes into the diner in which they are eating, causing glass to severely damage the optic nerve of Fancy’s right eye, as well as lacerate the cornea. With the amount of glass embedded into the back of her eye, doctors are unsure if it can be saved. Fancy is terrified, but feels even more strongly that she needs to know about Noah and Maya’s past, as the organization threatening Noah and Maya is undoubtedly behind the diner incident. Noah refuses to tell Fancy, fearing for her safety, and Fancy maintains that their relationship is over.

After talking with Katherine and Rachel, however, Fancy decides to accept Noah’s lies and take him back. Their reunion is short-lived, though, for Fancy soon finds Noah in bed with Maya. Noah, who, along with Maya, has been arrested by the FBI on charges of terrorism, makes a deal to pretend to be dating Maya and garner information from the terrorist organization for the FBI. As a result, Noah tells Fancy that she was only a conquest to him, and Fancy, broken-hearted, ends their relationship.

With a clean bill of health in regards to her eye, Fancy leaves Harmony for Rome, a city that she hopes will inspire her to design more clothes. In Rome, Fancy finds that Esme and the notorious gigolo Gianni Valentino are staying at her hotel — as are Noah and Maya, who are there to double-cross Lena and her terrorist organization. Fancy briefly dates Gianni to make Noah jealous, but when, at a club, Noah sincerely swears his undying love for her, Fancy takes Noah back. The two sleep together again, but when she wakes up, Noah has gone back to the club, where he is making out with Maya. Fancy swears Noah off once and for all; though Noah eventually tells Fancy that he was only pretending to be involved with Maya as part of an FBI sting to bring down Lena, Maya and Lena have both been killed and his sister, Jessica, is uncooperative, leaving Noah without any proof of his story. Having been lied to once too many times, Fancy refuses to believe her ex, though Noah accuses her of not wanting to reunite because she is falling in love with Luis.

Relationship with Luis

New crush in Rome, 2006

Fancy first meets her aunt’s ex-fiancé, Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, in Rome when she and Noah hear a woman in the catacombs screaming. Beneath the city, Noah and Fancy find Luis and Chad Harris, who have been buried beneath the rubble of a cave-in. Luis, mistakenly believing that Fancy is her aunt Sheridan, kisses her, and later carries his almost-niece out of the catacombs after a falling rock strikes her in the head. It is during this event that Fancy first develops a crush on Luis, though both remain oblivious to her true feelings and become good friends. As Harper notes, “[Luis] and Fancy are the walking wounded. They have two totally different stories, but they find common ground and connect”.

Luis, fearing that Fancy might be the “[person] from Harmony who will die in Rome”, decides to become Fancy’s bodyguard, a difficult task. Fancy unknowingly ends up becoming friends with none other than her deranged half-aunt, Beth Wallace, who erroneously believes that Luis and Fancy are lovers. Beth tries to kill Fancy both in Roman ruins and in her hotel room by locking Luis in the bathroom and smothering Fancy with a pillow, but ultimately fails at both attempts. Fancy, fearful that Beth might return, has Luis platonically share her bed for protection; Noah walks in on the two and believes that they have had sex. Noah tells Fancy that she disgusts him, and Luis comforts Fancy as she cries. After her attack, Fancy becomes determined to help Luis find his son, Marty, whom Beth has kidnapped. Fancy uses Beth’s determination to commit murder to lure her to an art gallery, but Beth escapes into a cab with Marty. Luis and Fancy chase the cab via motorcycle, but the cab crashes and bursts into flames, apparently killing Beth and Marty.

When Sheridan calls with the news that Alistair is no longer in a coma and is more than likely in Rome, Luis sets out to murder Alistair, blaming him for Marty’s death; Fancy follows. They, along with Noah and Chad, find Alistair in the basement of a church possessing the omega symbol, where he is attempting to heat the chalice in the fire and thus become omnipotent. The four stop him, but he triggers a cave-in and escapes. Luis and Fancy find him in an exact replica of his Harmony study in the catacombs, where he is accompanied by a very-much-alive Beth. Luis and Fancy attempt to take the two to the police and force them to reveal Marty’s whereabouts, but Alistair and Beth again escape, retrieving Marty and fleeing to some Roman ruins. There, Alistair unleashes lions on the two, forcing Fancy to realize just how evil her grandfather truly is, and when Luis has to stop to save Fancy, the trio escape. Demented Beth, however, is determined to still be with Luis and calls him, allowing Interpol to track the signal to a train preparing to leave the city. Luis, Fancy, and Noah take an Interpol helicopter to chase after Marty, but a mysterious drone plane destroys a bridge, causing the train to plummet into a ravine and killing Alistair, Beth, and Marty. Devastated, Luis, Fancy, and the rest of those involved in the vendetta storyline return to Harmony. Sheridan is devastated to learn of Marty’s death and suffers a miscarriage; Luis realizes that she will now never leave her husband for him.

Progression in Harmony, 2006

Upon returning to Harmony, Fancy comes to realize that she has feelings for Luis and, with Sheridan’s blessing, begins to actively pursue a relationship with him. She quits her job at Crane and joins the police cadet training program in order to be close to the object of her desires, but she eventually comes to love police work, as well, and refuses to quit when she discovers that officers and cadets are forbidden from fraternizing. Instead, she and Luis decide to officially begin dating after she has been graduated from the police academy.

While playing with her young cousin, James, Fancy realizes that the boy saw the man who had murdered one of the Cranes’ maids, Phyllis. Fancy chases after the man without calling for back-up, and he renders her unconscious in an abandoned mineshaft, blindfolds her, and attempts to rape her. Chris discovers what Spike is attempting and stops him, but Fancy escapes and flees, eventually falling through some rotten floorboards and landing, unconscious, on a platform many feet down. Chris and Spike both believe Fancy to be dead and leave her body in the shaft. Luis, meanwhile, searches frantically for his would-be girlfriend, causing Sheridan to become stricken with jealousy. She fixes Luis some tea and puts a sleeping pill in it, despite the fact that such an act risks her own niece’s life. However, in their unconscious states, Luis and Fancy’s souls are able to connect; when Luis wakes, he finds dirt and blood on his jacket that were not there before he fell asleep. With the dirt and blood, Luis, Sheridan, and Paloma are able to find the mineshaft. While attempting to rescue Fancy, she and Luis plummet to the bottom of the mineshaft; as Fancy lies dying, Luis builds a fire and strips in order to keep her warm with his body heat. Fearful of losing her, Luis admits that he is in love with Fancy for the first time. Fancy survives, and the two grow closer, though they are still unable to officially become a couple due to the police department’s regulations.

Rapes and Luis’s incarceration, 2006–07

Back at work, Fancy is determined to prove herself to Luis, her superior; she switches with another officer in order to go undercover and catch a peeping tom. The sting backfires, however, and by the time Luis arrives, it is too late — the peeping tom has brutally raped Fancy, leaving the young woman emotionally scarred. At the hospital, she falls into a coma; Luis remains by his love’s side, encouraging her to wake up, while a jealous Sheridan tells her comatose niece that she is no good for Luis and will only bring him pain. Fancy eventually regains consciousness, the Christmas miracle of 2006. Though emotionally and physically devastated by her rape, Luis swears to stand by her side as she heals.

While Fancy sleeps, trying to recover from her rapes, her rapist begins using a secret passageway leading to her closet to terrorize her while she is alone. During one attack, Fancy is able to rip a button from her attacker’s shirt, but Sheridan finds and hides it, convincing Luis that a combination of trauma and alcohol have caused Fancy to imagine her attacks while also suggesting that Fancy may be purposely fabricating the attacks for attention. Fancy lashes out at her aunt, revealing that she had heard Sheridan’s monologue as she lay in a coma, but Luis is unprepared to believe that his ex-flame has changed so drastically. Luis’s disbelief soon leads to tragedy when Fancy’s attacker returns one night as she sleeps in her “princess room”. The attacker injects Luis with a drug, causing him to hallucinate that he is making love to Fancy while the attacker rapes him and collects his semen. After dragging Luis away, the attacker then rapes Fancy for a second time, at which time he inserts Luis’s semen into her vagina. When Chad and Whitney hear Fancy screaming they burst into her room, finding her alone but bruised. The decision to have Fancy raped for a second time stunned and even upset some fans. Harper admitted that the rape scenes were “definitely, as an actor, one of the most challenging scenes I’ve ever done. There was a couple of months where it was numerous times, numerous occasions where Fancy was raped and… we wanted to present it in a realistic fashion and show that emotional aspect of going through something like that. I think we conveyed that very well.”

Everyone searches the mansion for Fancy’s attacker, finally finding the masked man unconscious in the pantry. When his mask is removed, the man is revealed to be none other than Luis. Fancy is devastated by the turn of events, unsure if she can trust Luis after he promised — and failed — to protect her. Fancy eventually agrees to undergo a rape kit, and the DNA found inside of her is a perfect match to that of Luis. As Fancy had earlier admitted that she and Luis have never had sex, Luis is arrested for rape and then later released on bail. Hoping to prove his innocence, both Luis and Fancy undergo hypnosis; Luis eventually remembers being attacked by the Blackmailer, and both he and Fancy refer to their attacker as being female. Luis and Fancy hope to be able to finally prove his innocence when Simone’s girlfriend, Rae, claims to have information about Fancy’s attacker, but the attacker murders Rae and frames Luis; after acid is poured on Fancy’s leg while she and Luis are away from Harmony, he is arrested and held in jail.

Fancy is later called to the scene of an arson, where she sees the assumed arsonist inside; when a box of ammunition explodes due to the heat, she believes that she is being shot at and returns fire, striking the arsonist. She soon discovers that the arsonist is none other than Luis, who had realized that he was about to be framed for another crime and rushed to stop the real criminal, and he is rushed to the hospital, where he survives but is charged with arson and a second murder, that of a bartender at the Blue Note who claimed to have information on the attacker from Rae. Luis and his brother, Miguel, are both tried at the same time, despite having committed unrelated crimes. Fancy provides helpful testimony on the witness stand, but a jealous Sheridan takes the stand and destroys her niece’s credibility while admitting that she still wants Luis for herself. Luis is convicted of all five crimes and is furious with Sheridan for her antics.

Luis is sent to prison, but, hoping to spare Fancy the pain of seeing him in prison, removes her from the visitors list. Determined to see Luis, she disguises herself as a quasi-lesbian prison guard so that she can see and watch over Luis. Unbeknownst to her, Sheridan has disguised herself as a man and snuck in as Luis’s cellmate; Fancy sees Sheridan kiss Luis and believes that Luis has “turned gay”. After confronting Luis in solitary confinement, she eventually comes to find that this is not the case. The two are about to have sex in the prison infirmary when Sheridan sees a live feed on Fancy’s laptop of the two; she calls the warden, and Fancy is ejected from the prison, leaving her unable to protect Luis from the violent prison guards. After learning that Judge Reilly has ordered that Luis be executed as soon as possible, Fancy begins frantically searching for a way to clear Luis’s name.

By late July, Luis’s time has nearly run out; all of his appeals have been denied, and his execution is imminent. Desperate to savor their remaining time together, Fancy proposes to Luis, and he accepts. They are set to be married early in August, but Fancy’s younger sister, Pretty, returns to Harmony just as Fancy is prepared to walk down the aisle. Pretty threatens to tell Luis how the sisters had been involved in a fight as teens that had left Pretty permanently scarred, and Fancy, who wants to allow Luis to die with faith in her, cancels the nuptials. Luis is executed on August 6, much to Fancy’s dismay, but Endora Lenox quickly turns back time in the execution chamber so that Eve Russell is able to admit that her long-lost son with Julian (and Fancy’s half-brother), Vincent Clarkson, was the mysterious blackmailer who killed Rae Thomas and Dylan Flood, set fire to Dylan’s apartment, and twice raped Fancy. Vincent is arrested, and Luis is freed.

Rivalry with Sheridan and Pretty, 2007–08

Angry that Fancy is so happy, Pretty decides to take her revenge on her sister and tells Luis that Fancy had thrown pool chemicals in her face in a purposeful attempt to scar her. Luis doesn’t believe Pretty until Fancy confirms the story, though she denies that the attack was intentional. Fancy tries to break up with Luis, afraid that the so-called “Crane curse” will cause her to harm Luis, as it has caused all of her Crane relatives to harm their loved ones, but Luis convinces her to continue their relationship.

Early in September, Alistair, with Pretty’s help, drugs Fancy and has a mind-control device implanted into her brain via her nose. When Alistair tries to issue Fancy a command to slap Luis during foreplay, the device malfunctions, and Fancy is hit with a disabilitating headache. The headache eventually stops, but Fancy’s nose soon begins to bleed heavily; the NBC finale on September 7 has Fancy passed out as a result. In the DirecTV debut on September 17, Fancy quickly regains consciousness. However, Alistair finally discovers how to properly work the mind-control device and successfully causes Fancy to lash out at Luis and slap him across the face. Fancy’s random and violent outbursts, coupled with Luis’s secretive quest to find Marty and magically-influenced trysts, both with Sheridan, strain the couple’s relationship and eventually lead Fancy to call quits.

After breaking up with Luis, Fancy goes to the wharf to clear her head; there, she comes across her ex-boyfriend, Noah Bennett. Due to Tabitha’s spell, the two wind up kissing. Later, on Thanksgiving, another of Tabitha’s spells transports Fancy to the Lenox living room and causes her to make out with Noah; Noah’s girlfriend, Paloma, catches them, but his sister Kay zaps Fancy away and makes all three forget what has happened. Tabitha is persistent, however, and, while Kay is out, she uses her powers to transport Fancy to Noah’s bedroom and cause the two to have sex; when Paloma and Sheridan walk in on them, the two have no idea how they’d wound up together, or why they are in bed together. Paloma is furious and devastated and breaks up with Noah, while Sheridan gloats to her niece, calling her a slut and accusing her of never truly loving Luis.

When Fancy learns that Luis is missing, she becomes panicked and realizes that she still loves Luis, despite his infidelity with her aunt. Fancy and Sheridan team up to find Luis, but instead discover him beneath the Crane mansion in an embrace with Pretty. Fancy is furious, especially since she’d seen feed of them on her PDA having sex. Luis tries to explain that Alistair would only let them free if he impregnated Pretty, but Fancy refuses to hear his excuses. However, on Christmas Eve, in a last-ditch attempt to recover her daughter, Tabitha Lenox performs good magic on Luis and Fancy, on whom she previously cast spells to make them have sex with Sheridan and Noah, respectively, and causes Fancy to overcome her reservations about Luis and reunite with him. Though gloriously happy to be back with Luis, she becomes upset when she learns that Luis failed to inform her that his son, Marty, did not die in Rome, though she is thrilled that he is alive. Watching Luis with Sheridan and Marty on Christmas Day (actually aired on December 26), Fancy begins to realize that Sheridan will be able to use Marty to bind Luis to her.

Fancy determines to keep Luis, however, and buys an extra ticket for Marty to the Boston Bruins game so that the boy can accompany them on a date. Marty instantly bonds with Fancy, and both Luis and Fancy are thrilled at how natural the three are together. However, Pretty, in her quest to win Luis for herself, decides to use Alistair’s mind-control device to make Fancy act out. Under Pretty’s control, Fancy lashes out at Luis and Sheridan in front of Marty, even taunting the child, telling him that Alistair is hiding under his bed, waiting to kidnap him again. After further episodes, Pretty tries to convince Luis that Fancy has reverted to her partying ways while Sheridan insists that Fancy has reunited with Noah, and Luis, though still deeply in love with Fancy, begins to doubt her love for him. Luis is still trying to sort through his feelings when he and Paloma come across Noah and Fancy, who have been trying to figure out what has been going on between them, on the wharf. At first convinced that Fancy is cheating on him, Luis quickly becomes concerned when Sheridan and Pretty’s battle for control of the remote causes Fancy to run into walls, bark like a dog, and, eventually, collapse and stop breathing. Once Fancy regains consciousness, the four quickly realize that there is, indeed, something physically wrong with Fancy and fear a brain tumor. Still, Fancy’s near-death experience draws her and Luis closer together than ever before, much to Sheridan and Pretty’s chagrin. Pretty tries to use Luis and Fancy’s closeness to convince Sheridan to team up with her, but Sheridan cannot abide by having such power over her niece and throws the remote control into the ocean; the water causes the device to short-circuit, and the chip dislodges itself from Fancy’s nose. When Noah finds the device, he throws it, too, into the ocean, to Pretty’s dismay.

After reuniting, Fancy begins thinking about having a baby with Luis. Though she is eager to become pregnant immediately, Luis is hesitant, preferring to fully recover from the past few months’ drama before fathering a second child; Fancy understands but privately fears that Luis believes that her violent mood swings will return. When Pretty overhears Luis and Fancy’s conversation, the younger Crane decides to fake a pregnancy to rip her sister’s relationship apart. Fancy is devastated by the news, fearing that her relationship will be torn apart by Luis’s families with her sister and aunt, but Luis vows that Fancy is the only one for him, proposing to her on April 30. Fancy and Luis eventually discover Pretty’s treachery, and after Pretty tries to scar Fancy’s face with acid, Sheridan reveals that Pretty’s scar has been fake all along. Luis and Fancy quickly realize that the youngest Crane child is mentally unwell, and Pretty is sent to a mental institution. The couple are deeply upset by Pretty’s plight, but are also happy to be free of her machinations, and begin planning for their imminent wedding. Fancy and Luis are married on July 23, and Fancy tells Luis that they are expecting a baby in the series finale. It is assumed that Julian becomes head of the Crane Empire with Fancy and her unborn child as heirs presumptive based on Julian’s statements in the series finale.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Fancy Crane, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, a promising botanist from Seattle, is seduced by Marc LeGrande into assisting him with the theft of an Egyptian artifact containing ancient herbs. Fearing she would implicate him in the theft, he attempts to poison her with the herbs, which are deadly and untraceable. She survives this murder attempt and discovers she has acquired an immunity to all natural toxins and diseases.

Post-Crisis: Life in Seattle and Gotham

Her origins were revised in ”Shadow of the Bat Annual” #3. Pamela Isley grows up wealthy with emotionally distant parents. She later studies advanced botanical biochemistry at a university with Alec Holland under Dr. Jason Woodrue. Isley, a timid, shy girl, is easily seduced by her professor. Woodrue injects Isley with poisons and toxins as an experiment, causing her transformation. She nearly dies twice as a result from these poisonings, driving her insane. Later Woodrue flees from the authorities, leaving Isley in the hospital for six months. Enraged at the betrayal, she suffers from violent mood swings, being sweet one moment and like poison the next. When her boyfriend has a car accident after mysteriously suffering from a massive fungal overgrowth, Isley drops out of school and leaves Seattle, eventually settling in Gotham City.

She begins her criminal career by threatening to release her suffocating spores into the air unless the city meets her demands. Batman, who appears in Gotham that very same year, thwarts her scheme, and she is incarcerated in Arkham Asylum. From this point on, she has a kind of obsession with Batman, he being the only person she could not control. Over the years, she develops plant-like superpowers, the most noticeable being a lethal toxin in her lips; she is able to literally kill with a kiss.

In subsequent issues, she states that she only started a life of crime to attain sufficient funds to find a location to be alone with her plants, undisturbed by humanity. A few years later, she attempts to leave Gotham forever, escaping Arkham to settle on a desert island in the Caribbean. She transforms the barren wasteland into a second Eden, and is, for the first time in her life, happy. It is soon firebombed, however, when an American-owned corporation tests their weapons systems out on what they think is an abandoned island. Ivy returns to Gotham with a vengeance, punishing those responsible. After being willingly apprehended by Batman, she resolves that she can never leave Gotham, at least not until the world was safe for plants. From then on, she dedicates herself to the impossible mission of “purifying” Gotham.

At one point, Batman travels to Seattle to ascertain information on Pamela Isley’s life before she became Poison Ivy. Here, Batman states that both of Pamela’s parents are dead. When and why they died has been left undetermined.

While in Arkham, Poison Ivy receives a message through flowers that someone is to help her escape. That night, two women, Holly and Eva, successfully break Ivy out and bring her back to their employer. She is less than happy to discover that it is the Floronic Man, formerly known as Dr. Jason Woodrue, her former college professor that conducted the experiments on her. The only human portion of him remaining is his head, while the rest of his body is plant-based.

After striking a deal with him in the underground tunnels of Gotham, Ivy receives a trunk full of money in return for samples of her DNA. Woodrue intends to combine their DNA to create a “child”, all while flooding the streets of Gotham with high-powered marijuana. The purpose of this is to create a world economy run on hemp and to have their offspring control it. Batman intervenes, but is overcome by Woodrue’s henchwomen, Holly and Eva. However, Ivy turns on Floronic Man and lets Batman go to fight the intoxicated maniac. In the end, Batman decapitates the Floronic Man, and Ivy escapes with her money.

At times, Ivy demonstrates positive, even maternal traits. When Gotham City is destroyed in an earthquake, rather than fight over territory like most of Batman’s enemies, she holds dominion over Robinson Park and turns it into a tropical paradise. Sixteen children who are orphaned during the quake come to live with her, as she sympathizes with them, having suffered a traumatic childhood herself. She cares for them like sons and daughters, despite her usual misanthropy.

That winter, Clayface (Basil Karlo) pays Ivy a visit, hoping to form a bargain with her. This would entail her growing fruits and vegetables, having the orphans harvest them, and him selling the produce to the highest bidder. She wants nothing to do with the plan, and she attempts to kill him with a kiss. Clayface overpowers her, however, and imprisons Ivy and the orphans for six months in a chamber under the park’s lake. He feeds her salt and keeps her from the sun to weaken her. Eventually, Batman comes and discovers the imprisoned orphans and Ivy. The two agree to work together to take Karlo down. Batman battles Clayface and instructs Robin to blow up the lake bed above, allowing the rushing water to break apart the mud, effectively freeing Ivy. She fights Karlo, ensnaring him in the branches of a tree and fatally kissing him. She then proceeds to sink him down into the ground, where he becomes fertilizer for Ivy’s plants. Batman, originally intending to take the orphans away from Ivy, recognizes that staying with her is what is best for them, and they remain in her care until the city is restored. Also, as part of a bargain to keep her freedom, Batman arranges it so that Ivy provides fresh produce to the starving hordes of earthquake survivors.

Soon after, Ivy finds Harley Quinn, who had almost been murdered by the Joker, among the debris of the earthquake and nurses her back to health. The two have been best friends and partners-in-crime ever since.

After Gotham City is reopened to the public, the city council wants to evict her from the park and send her back to Arkham Asylum, as they are uncomfortable with the thought of a “psychotic eco-terrorist controlling the equivalent of 30-odd square blocks.” They also mistakenly believe that the orphans in Ivy’s care are hostages. The Gotham City Police Department threaten to spray the park with R.C. Sixty, a powerful herbicide that most certainly would have killed every living plant in the park, including Ivy, and more than likely do harm to the children. Ivy refuses to leave the park to the city and let them destroy the paradise she had created, so she chooses martyrdom. It is only after Rose, one of the orphans, is accidentally poisoned by Ivy that the hardened eco-terrorist surrenders herself to the authorities in order to save the girl’s life. Batman says that, as much as she would hate to admit it, Ivy is still more human than plant.

Later on, she and other Gotham characters are manipulated by the Riddler and Hush. Her task is to hypnotize both Superman and Catwoman, using Catwoman to steal ransom money from Killer Croc after the original plan is interrupted by Batman while Superman serves as a ‘bodyguard’ when she hides in Metropolis; however, she abandons Catwoman to be killed by Killer Croc, and Batman is able to keep Superman busy in a fight- aided by the kryptonite ring he was given long ago- long enough for the Man of Steel to break out of the spell. Soon afterwards, the Riddler, who is being chased and attacked by Hush, approaches Ivy and seeks her protection. Ivy, who is angered by the manipulation, battles the Riddler physically and psychologically. She comes to physically dominate her opponent, humiliating Riddler and temporarily breaking his spirit.

Poison Ivy comes to believe that her powers are killing the children she had looked after, so she seeks Bruce Wayne’s help to reverse her powers and make her a normal human being once more. Soon after, she is convinced by Hush to take another serum to restore her powers and apparently dies in the process. However, when her grave is visited shortly thereafter, it is covered with ivy, creating the impression her death would be short-lived.

Shortly after, Poison Ivy appears briefly in Robinson Park, killing two corrupt cops who killed one of her orphans (although whether this takes place before or after the aforementioned storyline is unknown).

“One Year Later”, Ivy is alive and active. Her control over flora has increased, referred to as being on a par with Swamp Thing or Floronic Man. She also appears to have resumed her crusade against the corporate enemies of the environment with a new fanaticism, regarding Batman no longer as a main opponent, but as a “hindrance.”

After arriving back from a year-long absence, Batman discovers that Ivy has been feeding people including “tiresome lovers”, “incompetent henchmen”, and those who “returned her smile” to a giant plant which would digest the victims slowly and painfully. She refers to these murders as a “guilty pleasure”. In an unprecedented event, her victims’ souls merge with the plant, creating a botanical monster called ”Harvest”, who seeks revenge upon Ivy. With the intervention of Batman, however, she is saved. Ivy is left in critical condition, and the whereabouts of Harvest are unknown.

In ”Countdown #37”, the Piper and the Trickster are hiding out in a greenhouse, picking fruits and vegetables from the plants. They run into Ivy, who is talking to her plants (presumably being told that Piper and Trickster hurt them), to which she reacts by tying them up in vines with the intention of killing them. She is then shown to have joined the Injustice League Unlimited and is one of the villains featured in ”Salvation Run”.

In the “Battle For The Cowl” storyline, she is coerced by a new Black Mask into joining his group of villains that aims to take over Gotham. She and Killer Croc unsuccessfully attempt to murder Damian Wayne.

Shortly after, she escapes from Black Mask’s control and forms an alliance with Catwoman and Harley Quinn, leading into the ongoing series ”Gotham City Sirens”.

Gotham City Sirens

During Hush’s ploy to hurt Batman through hurting his loved ones, Hush kidnaps Catwoman and surgically removes her heart. After being saved by Batman, she is operated on by some of the most gifted surgeons in the world, including Doctor Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific. Zatanna also gives her a magic antidote to help heal her wounds. In order to get even with Hush, Selina enlists the help of Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Oracle, Holly Robinson, and Slam Bradley to track down all of Hush’s accounts, pilfer them, and leave him penniless. Selina pays Holly, Harley, and Ivy over $30 million each, hoping that they would use the funds to leave Gotham to start fresh somewhere else.

However, Harley uses her money to go on a shopping spree, while Ivy gives her money away to organizations in Madagascar and Costa Rica for reforestation.

After rescuing Catwoman from Boneblaster, a new villain trying to make a name for himself, Poison Ivy takes Catwoman back to Edward Nigma’s townhouse. When there, Catwoman sees that Ivy has been keeping the Riddler under mind control so that she and Harley could use his townhouse as a hideout. Here, Catwoman decides that with Gotham City more dangerous than ever with all the gang wars and a new Batman, a partnership with the other two women would be advantageous. However, Ivy fears that Catwoman has lost her edge and prowess, and consults with Zatanna on the nature of Catwoman’s injuries. Zatanna responds that Catwoman has psychological wounds that would need healing. Ivy resolves that she and Harley would provide Catwoman with “positive female reinforcement”. The three then agree to become a team. However, Harley and Ivy have one condition: they demand that Catwoman reveal to them the true identity of Batman.

Eventually, Ivy and the other Sirens ambush the Riddler at his office (with Ivy using her plants to truss and gag his secretary), telling him that they’ve been framed for the murder of a young nurse. He agrees to help clear their names, and during the discussion Ivy reveals that she has recently taken up a job at the Gotham division of S.T.A.R. Labs under an assumed name (Dr. Paula Irving). She is eventually kidnapped and placed in a specialized containment unit by a researcher named Alisa Adams, but escapes and turns the table on her captor by binding her with vines. Ivy initially informs Adams that she plans to kill her, but instead decides to let her live after seeing a photograph of Alisa’s young daughter. Ivy then threatens the Alisa into keeping her mouth shut about her true identity, telling her that she will change her mind and kill her if she reveals her secret to anyone.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Poison Ivy (comics), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The Hulk first appeared in ”The Incredible Hulk” #1 (May 1962) by writer-editor Stan Lee and penciller and co-plotter Jack Kirby, who was inked by Paul Reinman. Lee cites influence from ”Frankenstein” and ”Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in the Hulk’s creation:

“I combined ”Jekyll and Hyde” with Frankenstein,” he explains, “and I got myself the monster I wanted, who was really good, but nobody knew it. He was also somebody who could change from a normal man into a monster, and lo, a legend was born.” Lee remembers, “I had always loved the old movie ”Frankenstein”. And it seemed to me that the monster, played by Boris Karloff, wasn’t really a bad guy. He was the good guy. He didn’t want to hurt anybody. It’s just those idiots with torches kept running up and down the mountains, chasing him and getting him angry. And I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to create a monster and make him the good guy?’”

Lee also compared Hulk to the Golem of Jewish myth. In ”The Science of Superheroes”, Gresh and Weinberg see the Hulk as a reaction to the Cold War and the threat of nuclear attack, an interpretation shared by Weinstein in ”Up, Up and Oy Vey”. Kaplan calls Hulk “schizophrenic”. Jack Kirby has also commented upon his influences in drawing the character, recalling as inspiration the tale of a mother who rescues her child who is trapped beneath a car.

Debut and first series

In the debut, Lee chose grey for the Hulk because he wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colorist Stan Goldberg, however, had problems with the grey coloring, resulting in different shades of grey, and even green, in the issue. After seeing the first published issue, Lee chose to change the skin color to green. Green was used in retellings of the origin, with even reprints of the original story being recolored for the next two decades, until ”The Incredible Hulk” vol. 2, #302 (Dec. 1984) reintroduced the grey Hulk in flashbacks set close to the origin story. Since then, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original grey coloring, with the fictional canon specifying that the Hulk’s skin had initially been grey.

The original series was canceled with issue #6 (March 1963). Lee had written each story, with Kirby penciling the first five issues and Steve Ditko penciling and inking the sixth. The character immediately guest-starred in ”Fantastic Four” #12 (March 1963), and months later became a founding member of the Avengers, appearing in the first two issues of that superhero team’s eponymous series (Sept. & Nov. 1963), and returning as an antagonist in issues #3 and #5 (Jan. & May 1964). He then guest-starred in ”Fantastic Four” #25–26 (April–May 1964), which revealed his first name, Robert, and ”The Amazing Spider-Man” #14 (July 1964).

Around this time, co-creator Kirby received a letter from a college dormitory stating the Hulk had been chosen as its official mascot. Kirby and Lee realized their character had found an audience in college-age readers.

”Tales to Astonish”

A year and a half after the series was canceled, the Hulk became one of two features in ”Tales to Astonish” in issue #60 (Oct. 1964). In the previous issue, he appeared as an antagonist for Giant-Man, whose feature under various superhero guises had run in the title since issue #35. This phase also introduced the concept of Banner’s transformations being caused by extreme emotional stress, which would become central to the character’s status as an iconic figure of runaway emotion. This new Hulk feature was initially scripted by writer-editor Lee and illustrated by the team of penciller Steve Ditko and inker George Roussos. Other artists later in this run included Jack Kirby from #68-84 (June 1965 – Oct. 1966), doing full pencils or, more often, layouts for other artists; Gil Kane, credited as “Scott Edwards”, in #76 (Feb. 1966), his first Marvel Comics work; Bill Everett (inking Kirby in #78-84, April-Oct. 1966); and John Buscema. Marie Severin finished out the Hulk’s run in ”Tales to Astonish”; beginning with issue #102 (April 1968) the book was retitled ”The Incredible Hulk”, and ran until March 1999, when Marvel canceled the series and then restarted the title with a new issue #1. This run of stories introduced readers to the supervillains the Leader, who would become the Hulk’s archnemesis, and the Abomination, another gamma-irradiated being. In issue #77 (March 1966), Bruce Banner’s and the Hulk’s dual identity became publicly known.

1970s

”The Incredible Hulk” was published through the 1970s, and the character also made guest appearances in other titles. Writers introduced Banner’s cousin Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk, in a title of her own. In the first issue of the She-Hulk comic, Banner gave some of his blood to Walters in a transfusion, and the gamma radiation affected her, but she maintained most of her intellect. She later appeared in the Hulk comic proper, as well as other Marvel titles. Banner’s guilt about causing her change became another part of his character, although Jennifer grew to prefer her Hulk state.

Writers changed numerous times during the decade. At times, the creative staff included Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, and Tony Isabella, Len Wein handled many of the stories through the 1970s, working first with Herb Trimpe, then, in 1975, with Sal Buscema, who was the regular artist for ten years. Harlan Ellison plotted a story, scripted by Roy Thomas, for issue #140 (Jun 1971), “The Brute that Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom”. Also of notability was Incredible Hulk #181, which featured the introduction of the character Wolverine, who would go on to become one of Marvel Comics’ most popular characters.

In 1977, Marvel (under its Curtis Magazines imprint) launched a second title, ”The Rampaging Hulk”, a black-and-white comics magazine. Originally, the series was conceived as a flashback series, set between the end of his original, short-lived solo title and the beginning of his feature in ”Tales to Astonish”. After nine issues, the magazine was retitled ”The Hulk!” and printed in full color. Near the end of the magazine’s run, it went back to black-and-white. Back-up features included ”Bloodstone”, ”Man-Thing”, and ”Shanna the She-Devil” during the ”Rampaging Hulk” issues, and later ”Moon Knight” and ”Dominic Fortune”.

Ultimately, the stories from both incarnations of the magazine were quietly retconned as “movies” based upon the Hulk for alien audiences.

1980s and 1990s

Following Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo took over the writing with issue #245 (March 1980). His Crossroads of Eternity stories, which ran from issue #300 (Oct. 1984) to #313 (Nov. 1985), explored the idea that Banner had suffered child abuse. Greg Pak, a later writer on ”The Incredible Hulk” volume 2, called Mantlo’s Crossroads stories one of his biggest influences on approaching the character.

After five years, Mantlo and artist Mike Mignola left the title for ”Alpha Flight”, and Alpha Flight writer John Byrne took over the series, followed briefly by Al Milgrom, before new regular writer Peter David took over.

David became the writer of the series with issue #331 (May 1987), marking the start of a 12-year tenure. David’s run altered Banner’s pre-Hulk characterization and the nature of the relationship between Banner and the Hulk. David returned to the Stern and Mantlo abuse storyline, expanding the damage caused, and depicting Banner as suffering dissociative identity disorder. David’s stories showed that Banner had serious mental problems long before he became the Hulk. David revamped the personality significantly, giving the grey Hulk the alias ‘Joe Fixit’, and setting him up as a morally ambiguous Vegas enforcer and tough guy. David worked with numerous artists over his run on the series, including Dale Keown, Todd McFarlane, Sam Kieth, Gary Frank, Liam Sharp, Terry Dodson, Mike Deodato, George Pérez, and Adam Kubert.

In issue #377 (Jan 1991), David revamped the Hulk again, using a storyline involving hypnosis to have the splintered personalities of Banner and Hulk synthesize into a new Hulk, who has the vast power of the Savage Hulk, the cunning of the grey Hulk, and the intelligence of Bruce Banner.

In the 1993 ”Future Imperfect” miniseries, writer David and penciller George Pérez introduced readers to the Hulk of a dystopian future. Calling himself the Maestro, the Hulk rules over a world where most of the heroes have been killed, and only Rick Jones and a small band of rebels fight against The Maestro’s rule. Although The Maestro seemed to be destroyed by the end, he returned in ”The Incredible Hulk” #460 (Jan 1998), also written by David.

In 1998, David followed editor Bobbie Chase’s suggestion to kill Betty Ross. In the introduction to the Hulk trade paperback ”Beauty and the Behemoth”, David said that his wife had recently left him, providing inspiration for the storyline. Marvel executives used Ross’ death as an opportunity to push the idea of bringing back the Savage Hulk. David disagreed, leading to his parting ways with Marvel. His last issue of ”Hulk” was #467 (Aug 1998), his 137th.

Also in 1998, Marvel relaunched ”The Rampaging Hulk”, as a standard comic book rather than as a comics magazine.

Relaunch

Following David’s departure, Joe Casey took over as writer though the series’ relaunch after issue #474 (March 1999). ”Hulk” vol. 2 began immediately the following month, scripted by John Byrne and penciled by Ron Garney. Byrne departed before the first year was over, citing creative differences. Erik Larsen and Jerry Ordway briefly filled scripting duties in his place, and the title returned to ”The Incredible Hulk” vol. 3 with the arrival of Paul Jenkins in issue #12 (March 2000).

Jenkins wrote a story arc in which Banner and the three Hulks (Savage Hulk, grey Hulk, and the Merged Hulk, now considered a separate personality and referred to as the Professor) are able to mentally interact with one another, each personality taking over the shared body. During this, the four personalities (including Banner) confront yet another submerged Hulk, a sadistic Hulk intent on attacking the world for revenge. Jenkins also created John Ryker in issue #14 (May 2000), a ruthless military general in charge of the original gamma bomb test responsible for the Hulk’s creation, and who plans to create similar creatures. Ryker’s actions briefly result in Banner becoming the sadistic Hulk before the four other personae subdue the beast.

Bruce Jones followed as the series’ writer, and his run features Banner using yoga to take control of the Hulk while he is pursued by a secret conspiracy and aided by the mysterious Mr. Blue. Jones appended his 43-issue ”Incredible Hulk” run with the limited series ”Hulk/Thing: Hard Knocks” #1-4 (Nov. 2004 – Feb. 2005) , which Marvel published after putting the ongoing series on hiatus.

Peter David, who had initially signed a contract for the six-issue ”Tempest Fugit” limited series, returned as writer when it was decided to make the story, now only five parts, part of the ongoing series instead. David contracted to complete a year on the title. ”Tempest Fugit” revealed that Nightmare has manipulated the Hulk for years, tormenting him in various ways for “inconveniences” that the Hulk had caused him, including the sadistic Hulk Jenkins had introduced. After a four-part tie-in to the ”House of M” crossover and a one-issue epilogue, David left the series once more, citing the need to do non-Hulk work for the sake of his career.

Planet Hulk and World War Hulk

In the 2006 crossover storyline ”Planet Hulk” by writer Greg Pak, a secret group of superhero leaders, the Illuminati, consider the Hulk an unacceptable potential risk to Earth, and rocket him into space to live a peaceful existence on a planet uninhabited by intelligent life. After a trajectory malfunction, the Hulk crashes on the violent planet Sakaar. Weakened by his journey, he is captured and eventually becomes a gladiator who scars the face of Sakaar’s tyrannical emperor. The Hulk becomes a rebel leader and later usurps Sakaar’s throne through combat with the Red King and his armies.

After Hulk’s rise to emperor, the vessel used to send Hulk to Sakaar explodes, killing millions in Sakaar’s capital, including his pregnant queen, Caiera, and the damage to the tectonic plates nearly destroys the planet.

The Hulk, enraged, returns to Earth with the remnants of Sakaar’s citizens, and his allies, the Warbound, seeking retribution against the Illuminati. After laying siege to Manhattan, the Hulk learns one of his allies allowed the explosion to happen. He reverts to his Bruce Banner form and is taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.

Retitling and new ”Hulk” series

As of #113 (Feb. 2008), the series was retitled ”The Incredible Hercules”, still written by Greg Pak but starring the mythological demigod Hercules and teenage genius Amadeus Cho.

Marvel also launched a new volume of ”Hulk”, written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Ed McGuinness. The series featured the debut appearance of a new, Red Hulk, Banner coming out of a coma and resuming his changes into the Green Hulk, and appearances from a wide range of characters such as the Grandmaster, Terrax, Tiger Shark, and others. After issue #12, Incredible Hulk #600 was released, where Red Hulk absorbs Hulk’s radiation and claims Banner can never turn into the Hulk again. The Hulk book then continued with issue #13 with Banner questioning whether he should be glad that Hulk is gone or even if the Hulk is truly gone. The Incredible Hulk book also continued with #601 onwards where Banner seeks out his son Skaar, offering to train him to kill the Hulk.

While training Skaar for the eventuality of the Hulk’s return, Banner encounters Ms. Marvel and Norman Osborn’s assistant, Victoria Hand, who he thinks are trying to cross the Hulk off of Osborn’s “List”. They expose him to a gamma radiation facility, re-initiating the radiation in his body. Osborn explains that he wants the Hulk to return, taking the super-intelligent Banner out of the equation, and fight Skaar, hopefully killing each other.

December 2009 saw the beginning of an event called Fall of the Hulks, which according to solicitations, was a lead up to a crossover called World War Hulks. Covers depict all of the “Hulks” (Banner, Skaar, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, Red She-Hulk, Lyra, A-Bomb, and Leonard Samson) defeated, as well as a new supervillain team-up, the Intelligencia. During this time, Banner enters into an alliance with the Red Hulk, a former Intelligencia agent. Under Banner’s direction, Red Hulk apparently has killed General Ross, an important player in the Intelligencia’s overall goal. Much later, the Red Hulk reveals himself to Banner as the real General Ross, the one Banner killed was a Life Model Decoy , and Ross joined the Intelligencia to have his daughter Betty resurrected as the Red She-Hulk.

At the end of the ”Hulked Out Heroes” storyline, the Intelligencia irradiates several heroes, turning them into Hulk versions of themselves, Bruce Banner frees them by absorbing their gamma radiation. This hastens a process initiated by Norman Osborn, reverting Banner to Hulk form. This Hulk form is quickly revealed to be the “World Breaker Hulk” that holds the heroes of Earth responsible for the death of his wife and Sakaar. Skaar eagerly attacks the Hulk, the two fighting across the country, until Skaar witnesses the Hulk save some innocent bystanders that he failed to notice, and stops fighting. The Hulk keeps punching Skaar until he reverts to his child-like form, causing him to see the parallels between himself and his own abusive father. The Hulk changes back to Bruce, and he embraces his son.

Bruce then transforms into Hulk fully controlling it and goes back to Washington to battle Red Hulk. Red She-Hulk tries to stop it, but is defeated by She-Hulk. Banner battle with Red Hulk gets them to the Intelligencia who manage to escape as their battle continues. Their battle eventually ends with Hulk defeating Red Hulk at The Lincoln Memorial. Later, Banner and Captain Steve Rogers lock Red Hulk up and makes it clear that “they have plans for him.”

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hulk (comics), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The director of Yale Psychology laboratory E.W. Scripture, PhD, published ”The New Psychology” in 1897 (The Walter Scott Ltd, London), which described the basic principles of subliminal messages.

In 1900, Knight Dunlap, an American professor of psychology, flashed an “imperceptible shadow” to subjects while showing them a Müller-Lyer illusion containing two lines with pointed arrows at both ends which create an illusion of different lengths. Dunlap claimed that the shadow influenced his subjects subliminally in their judgment of the lengths of the lines.

Although these results were not verified in a scientific study, American psychologist Harry Levi Hollingworth reported in an advertising textbook that such subliminal messages could be used by advertisers.

During World War II, the tachistoscope, an instrument which projects pictures for an extremely brief period, was used to train soldiers to recognize enemy airplanes. Today the tachistoscope is used to increase reading speed or to test sight.

1950–1970

In 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks. Vicary coined the term ”subliminal advertising” and formed the Subliminal Projection Company based on a six-week test. Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie ”Picnic” he used a tachistoscope to project the words “Drink Coca-Cola” and “Hungry? Eat popcorn” for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals. Vicary asserted that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in that New Jersey theater increased 57.8% and 18.1% respectively.

However, in 1962 Vicary admitted to lying about the experiment and falsifying the results, the story itself being a marketing ploy. An identical experiment conducted by Dr. Henry Link showed no increase in cola or popcorn sales. A trip to Fort Lee, where the first experiment was alleged to have taken place, would have shown straight away that the small cinema there couldn’t possibly have had 45,699 visitors through its doors in the space of six weeks. This has led people to believe that Vicary actually did not conduct his experiment at all.

However, before Vicary’s confession, his claims were promoted in Vance Packard’s book ”The Hidden Persuaders”, and led to a public outcry, and to many conspiracy theories of governments and cults using the technique to their advantage. The practice of subliminal advertising was subsequently banned in the United Kingdom and Australia, and by American networks and the National Association of Broadcasters in 1958.

But in 1958, Vicary conducted a television test in which he flashed the message “telephone now” hundreds of times during a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program, and found no noticeable increase in telephone calls.

1970–2000

In 1973, commercials in the United States and Canada for the game ”Hūsker Dū?” flashed the message “Get it”. During the same year, Wilson Bryan Key’s book ”Subliminal Seduction” claimed that subliminal techniques were widely used in advertising. Public concern was sufficient to cause the FCC to hold hearings in 1974. The hearings resulted in an FCC policy statement stating that subliminal advertising was “contrary to the public interest” and “intended to be deceptive”. Subliminal advertising was also banned in Canada following the broadcasting of ”Hūsker Dū?” ads there.

The December 16, 1973 episode of ”Columbo” titled “Double Exposure”, is based on subliminal messaging: it is used by the murderer, Dr. Bart Keppler, a motivational research specialist, played by Robert Culp, to lure his victim out of his seat during the viewing of a promotional film and by Lt. Columbo to bring Keppler back to the crime scene and incriminate him. Lt. Columbo is shown how subliminal cuts work in a scene mirroring James Vicary’s experiment.

In 1978, Wichita, Kansas TV station KAKE-TV received special permission from the police to place a subliminal message in a report on the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill) in an effort to get him to turn himself in. The subliminal message included the text “Now call the chief”, as well as a pair of glasses. The glasses were included because when BTK murdered Nancy Fox, there was a pair of glasses lying upside down on her dresser; police felt that seeing the glasses might stir up remorse in the killer. The attempt was unsuccessful, and police reported no increased volume of calls afterward.

A study conducted by the United Nations concluded that “the cultural implications of subliminal indoctrination is a major threat to human rights throughout the world”.

Campaigners have suggested subliminal messages appear in music. In 1985, two young men, James Vance and Raymond Belknap, attempted suicide. At the time of the shootings, Belknap died instantly. Vance was severely injured and survived. Their families were convinced it was because of a British rock band, Judas Priest. The families claimed subliminal messages told listeners to “do it” in the song “Better by You, Better Than Me”. The case was taken to court and the families sought more than US$6& million in damages. The judge, Jerry Carr Whitehead said that freedom of speech protections would not apply to subliminal messages. He said he was not convinced the hidden messages actually existed on the album, but left the argument to attorneys. The suit was eventually dismissed. In turn, he ruled it probably would not have been perceived without the “power of suggestion” or the young men would not have done it unless they really intended to.

In 1985, Dr. Joe Stuessy testified to the United States Senate at the Parents Music Resource Center hearings that:

Stuessy’s written testimony stated that:

A few months after Judas Priest’s acquittal, Michael Waller, the son of a Georgia minister, shot himself in the head while supposedly listening to Ozzy Osbourne’s song “Suicide Solution” (despite the fact that the song “Suicide Solution” was not on the record [Ozzy Osbourne's ''Speak Of The Devil''] found playing in his room when his suicide was discovered). His parents claimed that subliminal messages may have influenced his actions. The judge in that trial granted the summary judgment because the plaintiffs could not show that there was any subliminal material on the record. He noted, however, that if the plaintiffs had shown that subliminal content was present, the messages would not have received protection under the First Amendment because subliminal messages are, in principle, false, misleading or extremely limited in their social value (Waller v. Osbourne 1991). Justice Whitehead’s ruling in the Judas Priest trial was cited to support his position.

2000–present

During the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign, a television ad campaigning for Republican candidate George W. Bush showed words (and parts thereof) scaling from the foreground to the background on a television screen. When the word BUREAUCRATS flashed on the screen, one frame showed only the last part, RATS. The FCC looked into the matter, but no penalties were ever assessed in the case.

A McDonald’s logo appeared for one frame during the Food Network’s ”Iron Chef America” series on January 27, 2007, leading to claims that this was an instance of subliminal advertising. The Food Network replied that it was simply a glitch.

On November 7, 2007, Network Ten Australia’s broadcast of the ARIA Awards was called out for using subliminal advertising in an exposé by the ”Media Watch” program on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

In February 2007, it was discovered that 87 Konami slot machines in Ontario (OLG) casinos displayed a brief winning hand image before the game would begin. Government officials worried that the image subliminally persuaded gamblers to continue gambling; the company claimed that the image was a coding error. The machines were removed pending a fix by Konami.

In 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of James Vicary’s original experiment, it was recreated at the International Brand Marketing Conference MARKA 2007. As part of the “Hypnosis, subconscious triggers and branding” presentation 1,400 delegates watched part of the opening credits of the film ”Picnic” that was used in the original experiment. They were exposed to 30 subliminal cuts over a 90-second period. When asked to choose one of two fictional brands, Delta and Theta, 81% of the delegates picked the brand suggested by the subliminal cuts, Delta. Although, Delta is also a real brand.

Historically, Ferrari’s Formula One cars sported a barcode design that was criticized for subliminally evoking the logo of sponsor company Marlboro, flouting a ban on tobacco advertising. The design was removed in response in 2010.

Penske Racing sports a livery design on a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car that subliminally evokes the logo of sponsor company Verizon, which is prohibited under that series’ prohibition of wireless advertising.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Subliminal stimuli, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. They were single-shot moments captured on film: a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work. These short films were called “actuality” films; the term “documentary” was not coined until 1926. Very little storytelling took place before the twentieth century. Many of the first films, such as those made by Auguste and Louis Lumière, were a minute or less in length, due to technological limitations.

Films showing many people (e.g., leaving a factory) were often made for commercial reasons: the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment, the film showing them. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, ”The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight”. Using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented the entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the country.

The French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen started a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906, the year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations. As Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. For scientific purposes, after 1906 Doyen combined 15 of his films into three compilations, two of which survive, the six-film series ”Extirpation des tumeurs encapsulées” (1906), and the four-film ”Les Opérations sur la cavité crânienne” (1911). These and five other of Doyen’s films survive.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Documentary film, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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*”Anthology of American Folk Music”, 1952, Folkways Records. Re-released in 1997 by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Filmography

*”Early Abstractions” (1939-56 or 1941-57 or 1946-52 or 1946-57) (assembled ca. 1964) 16& mm, black & white and color, 22 min. Originally silent, then accompanied by a reel-to-reel tape with songs by The Fugs—whose first album Smith produced—and subsequently by an optical soundtrack featuring Meet the Beatles!. Teiji Ito’s musical piece ”Shaman” plays on the 1987 video release. At first the anthology included only No. 1-4, later No. 5, 7, and 10 were added. The individual films however are not divided, they play as one. This anthology, in 2006, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

*”No. 1: A Strange Dream” (1939-47 or 1946-48) hand-painted 35& mm stock photographed in 16& mm, color, silent, 2:20 or 5 min. Initially intended to be screened with and synchronized to Dizzy Gillespie’s ”Manteca” or ”Guarachi Guaro”. “…the history of the geologic period reduced to orgasm length.”

*”No. 2: Message From the Sun” (1940-42 or 1946-48) hand-painted 35& mm stock photographed in 16& mm, color, 2:15 or 10 min. Initially intended to be screened with and synchronized to Dizzy Gillespie’s ”Algo Bueno”. This film “takes place either inside the sun or in… Switzerland” according to Smith. To produce this film he used a technique that involved cutting stickers of the type used to reinforce the holes in 3-ring binder paper. These were applied to 16& mm movie film and used like a stencil. Layers of vaseline and paint were used to color each frame in this manner. The effect is hypnotic, psychedelic and is something like a visual music.

*”No. 3: Interwoven” (1942-47 or 1947-49) hand-painted 35& mm stock photographed in 16& mm, color, 3:20 or 10 min. Reportedly cut down from about 30 min. Initially intended to be screened with and synchronized to Dizzy Gillespie’s ”Guarachi Guaro” or ”Manteca”. “Batiked animation made of dead squares…”

*”No. 4: Fast Track” a.k.a. Manteca” (1947 or 1949-50) 16& mm, black & white and color, 2:16 or 6 min. Silent though possibly intended to be screened with Dizzy Gillespie’s ”Manteca”. The film starts with a color sequence showing Smith’s painting ”[http://www.harrysmitharchives.com/2_artwork/art2.html Manteca]” (ca. 1950) with which he tried to subjectively depict Gillespie’s song, every brushstroke representing a music note. The film concludes with black & white superimpositions.

*”No. 5: Circular Tensions (Homage to Oskar Fischinger)” (1949-50) 16& mm, color, silent, 2:30 or 6 min. Sequel to No. 4.

*No. 6 (1948-51 or 1950-51) 16& mm, color, silent or mono, 1:30 or 20 min. Untraced red-green anaglyph 3-D film.

*”No. 7: Color Study” (1950-51-52) 16& mm, color, silent, 5:25 or 15 min. “Optically printed Pythagoreanism in four movements supported on squares, circles, grillwork, and triangles with an interlude concerning an experiment.”

*”No. 8” (1954 or 1957) 16& mm, black & white, silent, 5 min. Untraced collage. Later expanded to No. 12.

*”No. 9” (1954 or 1957) 16& mm, color, 10 min. Untraced collage.

*”No. 10: Mirror Animations” (1956-57) 16& mm, color, 3:35 or 10 min. Study for No. 11. “An exposition of Buddhism and the Kaballah in the form of a collage. The final scene shows Agaric mushrooms growing on the moon while the Hero and Heroine row by on a cerebrum.”

*”No. 11: Mirror Animations” (1956-57) 16& mm, color, 3:35 or 8 min. Features Thelonious Monk’s ”Misterioso”. Cut-up and collage animation. Later expanded to No. 17.

*”No. 12: Heaven and Earth Magic” a.k.a. ”The Magic Feature” a.k.a. ”Heaven and Earth Magic Feature” (1943-58 or 1950-60 or 1950-61 or 1957-62 or 1959-61) (reedited several times between 1957-62) 16& mm, black & white, mono, initially 6 hours, later versions of 2 hours and 67 min. Extended version of No. 8. Collage animation culled from 19th century catalogs meant to be shown using custom-made projectors fit out with color filters (gels, wheels, etc.) and masking hand-painted glass slides to alter the projected image. Smith explains, “The first part depicts the heroine’s toothache consequent to the loss of a very valuable watermelon, her dentistry and transportation to heaven. Next follows an elaborate exposition of the heavenly land, in terms of Israel and Montreal. The second part depicts the return to Earth from being eaten by Max Müller on the day Edward VII dedicated the Great Sewer of London.” Jonas Mekas gave the film—which is often regarded as Smith’s major work—its title in 1964/65.

*”No. 13: Oz” a.k.a. ”The Magic Mushroom People of Oz” (1962) 35& mm widescreen (scope), color, stereo, 3 hours or 108 min. but only 20-30 min. are known to survive. Unfinished commercial adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s ”The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” which was shelved after Harry’s close friend, the executive producer and primary financial backer Arthur Young died of cancer. Portions released as No. 16, 19, and 20. From the reported three to six hours of camera test footage (rushes) only ca. 15 minutes, in the form of non-color-corrected rushes, is known to be extant. The only completed bit is ”The Approach to Emerald City”, a 5 (other sources say 9 resp. 12) minute sequence set to music from Charles Gounod’s ”Faust”.

*”No. 14: Late Superimpositions” (1963-64-65) 16& mm, color, 29 min. Structured 122333221. Features the beginning of the opera ”Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny” by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht as recorded in 1956 by Lotte Lenya, the ”Norddeutscher Radiochor” (Max Thurn) and the ”Norddeutsches Radio-Orchester” (Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg). Later expanded to No. 18. “I honor it the most of my films, otherwise a not very popular one before 1972.” Shot in New York City and Anadarko.

*”No. 15” (1965-1966) 16& mm, color, silent, 10 min. Animation of Seminole patchwork.

*”No. 16: Oz – The Tin Woodman’s Dream” (1967) 35& mm widescreen (scope), color, silent, 14:30 min. Consists of ”The Approach to Emerald City” (cf. note on No. 13) followed by about 10 minutes of kaleidoscopic footage shot ca. 1966. See also No. 20.

*”No. 17: Mirror Animations (extended version)” (1962-76 or 1979) 16& mm, color, 12 min. Features Thelonious Monk’s ”Misterioso”. Extended version of No. 11 printed forward-backward-forward.

*”No. 18: Mahagonny” (1970-1980: shot 70-72, edited 72-80) 16& mm, color, tetraptych screen (initially with four 16& mm projectors, now composited onto a single 35& mm strip), 141 min. (edited down from over 11 hours of material). With Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, Patti Smith and images of Robert Mapplethorpe installations. “A mathematical analysis of Marcel Duchamp’s ”The Large Glass”, expressed in terms of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera ”Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”” upon which it is loosely based. Smith divided the images into four groups (Portraits, Animations, Symbols and Nature) and, with the assistance of Khem Caigan, arranged them as a series of procedural permutations in relation to the opera: every reel contains twenty-four scenes forming the palindrome PASA-PASNA-PASAP-ANSAP-ASAP-N. Note that the entire series hinges on Nature. Extended version of No. 14 (it also uses the same 1956 German language recording) Smith considered this film to be the ground-breaking harbinger of his unfinished masterwork, which was to have been an explication of the Four Last Things.

*”No. 19” (1980) 35& mm widescreen (scope), color, silent. Untraced excerpts from No. 13. See also No. 20.

*”No. 20: Fragments of a Faith Forgotten” (1981) 35& mm widescreen (scope), color, silent, 27 min. Consists of No. 16 and No. 19.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Harry Everett Smith, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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In Bram Stoker’s novel Count Dracula’s biography, characteristics, powers, abilities and weaknesses are narrated in a piecemeal way by multiple narrators, from different perspectives. The most informative of these narrators are Jonathan Harker, Abraham Van Helsing and Mina Harker.

Biography

Count Dracula (his first name is never given in the novel) is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Contrary to the vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula can exude a veneer of aristocratic charm which masks his unfathomable evil.

Details of his early life are obscure, but it seems that Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and became proficient in alchemy and magic.. Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a Voivode, he led troops against the Turks across the Danube. According to the character Abraham Van Helsing: Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle, Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three beautiful female vampires, who lay similarly entombed in the chapel beside him. His relations with these so-called “Brides of Dracula” are intimate, and two of them seem to bear a possible family resemblance though whether they be his lovers, sisters, daughters or an incestuous combination of these, as some have conjectured, is not made clear in the narrative.

As the novel begins in the late 19th century, Dracula acts on a long contemplated plan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker’s employer. Dracula at first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge and even rescues him from the clutches of his three bloodthirsty brides. In truth, however, Dracula wishes to keep Harker alive just long enough for his legal transaction to finish and to learn as much as possible about England.

Dracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the ”Demeter”, taking along with him boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his strength. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship’s crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is found tied up to the ship’s helm. The captain’s log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship’s journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a wolf.

Soon the Count is menacing Harker’s devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina “Mina” Murray, and her vivacious friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures — in ascending order of size — in order to absorb their “life force”. Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula’s proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy’s bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy’s deterioration, her companions call upon the Dutch doctor Van Helsing, the former mentor of one of Lucy’s suitors. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition’s supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula entices Lucy out of her chamber late at night and drains her blood, killing her and transforming her into one of the undead.

Van Helsing and a group of men enter Lucy’s crypt and kill her reanimated corpse. They later enter Dracula’s residence at Carfax, destroying his boxes of earth, depriving the Count of his ability to rest. Dracula leaves England to return to his homeland, but not before biting Mina.

The final section of the novel details the heroes racing Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with Dracula’s gypsy bodyguards, destroying him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven through his heart, Mina’s narrative describes his throat being sliced through by Jonathan Harker’s kukri knife and his heart pierced by Quincey Morris’s Bowie knife (Mina Harker’s Journal, 6 November, ”Dracula” Chapter 27).

Characteristics

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Count Dracula, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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1960s

Although Ultron first appears in ”Avengers” #54 (1968), the character is disguised for the majority of the issue as the Crimson Cowl, with his face only revealed on the last page of the issue and no name given to the character. The character leads the Masters of Evil against the Avengers. In the following issue, #55 (Aug. 1968), the character is identified as Ultron-5, the living automaton, although his origin is still unknown. In ”Avengers” 57 – 58 (Oct-Nov. 1968) in a flashback sequence it is revealed that Ultron is the creator of the “synthezoid” the Vision, whom it tries to use as a weapon to destroy the Avengers. The Vision, however, destroys Ultron with the aid of the Avengers.

Further flashbacks reveal that he is the creation of Henry Pym, and based on Pym’s brain patterns. The robot gradually developed its own intelligence and rebelled, and almost immediately suffers from an Oedipus Complex, whereby it feels irrational hatred for his “father” Hank, and demonstrates an interest in Hank’s lover Janet van Dyne, the Wasp. Rebuilding itself and upgrading five times, Ultron then hypnotizes Pym and brainwashed him into forgetting that the robot had ever existed.

The character’s next appearance is in ”Avengers” #66 – 68 (July – Sept. 1969), where the character, now referring to itself as Ultron-6, uses the fictional alloy adamantium to upgrade his body to an almost indestructible state. Taking the name Ultimate Ultron, its plans to destroy humanity are again thwarted by the Avengers.

1970s

A crossover story between ”Avengers” #127 (Sept. 1974) and ”Fantastic Four” #150 (Sept. 1974) features Ultron (now Ultron-7), recreated by Maximus with the body of the android Omega, attacking the wedding of the Inhuman Crystal and the Avenger Quicksilver, and battling the Avengers, Inhumans, and Fantastic Four before being destroyed once again. The character next appears in ”Avengers” #161 – 162 (July – Aug. 1977) as Ultron-8 where it is responsible for the creation of Jocasta whom it wishes to take as a robotic bride. Shortly afterwards, in ”Avengers” #170 – 171 (April – May 1978), the Avengers, with the aid of Ms. Marvel battle and defeat Ultron-8.

1980s

His next appearances are in ”Avengers” #201 – 202 (Nov. – Dec 1980) as Ultron-9 and in ”Marvel Two-In-One” #92-93 (Oct. – Nov. 1982) as Ultron-10; both appearances feature brainwashed heroes recreating and then defeating the robotic menace. After being briefly recreated (as Ultron-11) by the Beyonder and appearing on Battleworld during the Secret Wars, and for a brief encounter with the Thing, Ultron is destroyed again. The Thing, however, does bring Ultron’s head back to Earth as a souvenir. The head of Ultron-11 is dropped and forgotten by the Thing when there is an attack by the alien Dire Wraiths.

A new Ultron (Ultron-12) enters into an alliance with the villain the Grim Reaper and his allies (Nekra; the Erik Josten Goliath; Man-Ape and the Black Talon) in a bid to destroy the Reaper’s brother, Wonder Man. Although the villains are defeated by the West Coast Avengers, Ultron-12 begins to form a relationship with his “father”, Henry Pym. Ultron-12 begins calling itself Ultron Mark 12, in an effort to sound more human. Rebuilding itself, Ultron-11 comes into conflict with Hank Pym and Ultron-12. With the assistance of Wonder Man, they destroy Ultron-11. Ultron-12 then deactivates, but tells Pym it was glad it could help save him.

1990s

Ultron appears as a pawn of Doctor Doom; having been rebuilt with all previous personalities active at the same time, resulting in a form of robotic madness. Ultron fights Daredevil before a programming conflict deactivates the robot.

Another version of Ultron appears (Ultron-13) and is stopped by the ”West Coast Avengers”. After escaping captivity this version attempts to obtain a new form of vibranium called Nuform, but is repelled by the combined efforts of Iron Man, the Black Panther and Spider-Man. Ultron (Ultron-11) next briefly appears as a captive of a highly advanced Doombot, but is freed when the Doombot is defeated by Deathlok.

Ultron-13 escapes from prison and upgrades into “The Ultimate Ultron”, (technically Ultron-14) and captures the West Coast Avenger Mockingbird, using her brain patterns to create a new robotic mate called Alkhema. Alkhema aids Ultron but both are eventually jettisoned into space through a ruse by the Vision. The character reappears with Alkhema, and together they plan to create a “volcanic winter” by placing bombs underneath several volcanoes. The West Coast Avengers stop the pair once again, and Alkhema rebels and leaves Ultron. Another Ultron (Ultron-15) is found by the Vision, but is discovered to have been “infected” by human emotion and is seriously deteriorating, displaying symptoms that resemble alcoholism. This Ultron and a recreated Jocasta decide to explore the world with the Vision for a time.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Ultron, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Dr. Michael Morbius was created in response to the comic-book industry’s self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, lifting its ban on vampires and certain other supernatural characters in February 1971, and not as a challenge to the code, as many believe. Writer Roy Thomas and penciler Gil Kane created the character as a living man who is given vampiric abilities via scientific rather than supernatural means. Kane was instructed to specifically avoid Gothic fashion elements and design a costume for Morbius that was akin to those of superheroes or supervillains, and he specifically chose the red and blue primary colors that were the staple of characters like Spider-Man and Superman.

Morbius debuted in ”The Amazing Spider-Man” #101 (Oct. 1971), the first issue of Marvel Comics’ flagship Spider-Man series written by other than character co-creator and editor-in-chief Stan Lee. Lee, busy writing a screenplay for an unproduced science fiction movie, bequeathed the series to his right-hand editor, Thomas. “We were talking about doing Dracula, but Stan wanted a costumed villain. Other than that, he didn’t specify what we should do”, Thomas said in 2009, adding that part of the character conception came from an unspecified science-fiction film of Thomas’ youth, depicting a man turned into a vampire by radiation rather than magic. Thomas said the name “Morbius” was not deliberately taken from the antagonist Dr. Morbius in the movie ”Forbidden Planet”.

A tragic and sympathetic antagonist in his initial two-issue arc, having acquired his vampiric addiction while researching a cure for his own rare, fatal blood disease, Morbius collided again with Spider-Man and others in ”Marvel Team-Up” #3-4 (July & Sept. 1972). Morbius went on to star in in ”Vampire Tales”, a black-and-white horror-comics magazine published by Marvel’s sister company, Curtis Magazines, appearing in all but two of the mature-audience title’s 11 issues (Aug. 1973 – June 1975). All but the first and last of these were written by Don McGregor, with penciling by Rich Buckler and by Tom Sutton, primarily. After his first two ”Vampire Tales” stories, Morbius concurrently became the star of his own feature in Marvel’s bimonthly ”Adventure into Fear” anthology series, beginning with issue #20 (Feb. 1974) and continuing through #31 (Dec. 1975), the final issue of that title. These were written, successively, by Mike Friedrich, Steve Gerber (who wrote the first Morbius solo story, in ”Vampire Tales”), Doug Moench, and Bill Mantlo, working with a wide variety of pencilers. Morbius segued. During this period, Morbius again appeared as an antagonist in the Spider-Man one-shot, ”Giant-Size Super-Heroes” #1 (June 1974)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Morbius, the Living Vampire, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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