Comic Books and LOST, Part II

A while ago, I wrote a bit about a Fantastic Four story that may hold clues (or at least have influenced) where LOST was going in terms of plot. Looking back at it now, there really wasn't much of a relationship there, especially now that we know Charles Widmore is certainly not an older version of Ben. But I do see some parallels in other comic book stories, especially in regards to time travel. This is going to take a good deal of background to get everyone caught up, so please bear with me.

Once upon a time (1984), a large comic book company (Marvel) decided it would be really, really cool to have all their best heroes band together and fight all their most powerful villains in an all-out extravaganza slugfest.




The real purpose of it was to promote a line of Marvel action figures to be associated with the title: Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars. But a funny thing happened - they actually managed to make a decent story and heighten anticipation for the series using a very LOST-like technique: Flashbacks.

Every hero that took part in Secret Wars disappeared at the end of one of their own issues in normal continuity. Next issue, they all returned, having spent months on another planet engaged in this battle and alluding to events that happened there, but no one knew anything because the Secret Wars comic wasn't out yet! In fact, the twelve issues of SW came out over the course of a year, so fans really didn't find out what happened to everyone until a year later. Some characters returned significantly changed: Spider-Man came home with a shiny, new black costume. Colossus had an affair while he was away and broke up with Kitty Pryde shortly after. The Thing didn't return at all, with the She-Hulk taking his place in the Fantastic Four.

The heroes were taken away by a powerful entity "from beyond" they dubbed The Beyonder. He told them, both heroes and villains, that if they defeat their enemies "all they desire would be granted." A lot happens over the course of the series, but for our LOST purposes, here's what you need to know:

1) The Beyonder is all-powerful, capable of doing just about anything. Creating mass, manipulating space-time, an omniscient, sentient being about as close to a god as you can come.

2) During the course of the series, Dr. Doom manages to steal the Beyonder's power, becoming a god-like figure himself. He uses the power to kill all the heroes with a single "bolt from the blue."



3) However, Doom is eventually overcome by the power inside him. The weakened Beyonder (who hangs out by Doom's side, waiting for an opportunity) manages to trick him into restoring the heroes by placing doubts in his mind. Doom then loses total control and the Beyonder snatches his power back. In revenge, he banishes Dr. Doom "across the reaches of time and space" - to where, nobody knew.

The Beyonder reminds me very much of what Ben describes as the Magic Box on the Island: something that can grant your every desire, just by thinking about it. Later on in the Marvel Universe, it's revealed that the Beyonder is in actuality a Cosmic Cube (something also very much like a Magic Box) that, in the same accident that created the Molecule Man, gained sentience. Part of the Cosmic Cube's power went to Owen Reece who then became one of the Fantastic Four's greatest villains. The remainder eventually became the Beyonder.

The problem with power like the Beyonder's is that, as Doom found out, very few people have the mental strength to wield it without destroying a planet with every stray thought (Thanos also encountered this problem when he finally assembled the Infinity Gauntlet). This was one of the reasons I thought Ben wanted Walt. Perhaps Ben can't properly use the Magic Box - for all his vaunted intelligence, he simply doesn't have the right type of mind to manipulate the energies it contains. That's why DHARMA was interested in psychic research and it's why Ben had Walt kidnapped. However, Walt proved to be too powerful for Ben to use and he eventually abandoned his plan.

But the really interesting thing to me about the Secret Wars was that at the time that story took place in Marvel continuity, the story's main antagonist, Dr. Doom, as he appeared in the Secret Wars, was dead. In reality, his body had been destroyed, but he mind-swapped (don't ask) with an innocent bystander right before the explosion. This certainly wasn't the case in the Secret Wars comic where he appeared to be perfectly normal (as normal as Dr. Doom can be) and Reed even commented on the fact that he thought Doom was dead. This discrepancy wasn't resolved until years later in one of my favorite comics of all time: Fantastic Four #288.



The comic begins with Doom, who's mind is still trapped in the innocent bystander from before, capturing the Fantastic Four. The team at this time includes the She-Hulk, who, oddly, Doom says he's never met before, despite the fact he clearly battled her in the Secret Wars.

With the FF caged up, Doom attempts through sorcery to re-create his original body, but the spell he attempts to cast fails. He then tries and succeeds in summoning "the greatest power in the universe," who just happens to be The Beyonder (biggie version here):



Just as before, Doom doesn't recognize The Beyonder and, equally strange, The Beyonder doesn't recognize Doom either. The Beyonder gets ready to obliterate Doom when Reed convinces him to wait. After some querying, Reed discovers that the Beyonder doesn't recognize Doom because he's in a different body from the one that was in the Secret Wars (biggie):



Realizing who Doom really is, the Beyonder gets even MORE pissed and tries again to destroy Doom, only to be persuaded again by Reed, who finally puts 2 + 2 together, to wait (biggie):



Turns out, The Beyonder created a time-loop when he began the Secret Wars. Doom was destroyed in normal Marvel continuity, so he took Doom from a future point in the time stream, a point where Doom was in his normal body. That's why Doom didn't recognize the Beyonder because all the events of the Secret Wars were yet to happen for him. Reed points out that if the Beyonder were to destroy Doom now, it would likely rip apart the space-time continuum.

Thus, the only way to repair things and close the time-loop is for the Beyonder to cooperate with his past self, reconstruct Doom's body as it was and send him back to the start of the Secret Wars. And this is exactly what the Beyonder does (biggie):



This is a perfect example of what I think is going to happen on LOST (that I described in my last post). The Losties have created a time loop by going back to 1977. However, they won't go back to 1977 unless they all get on Flight 815. Thus all the time travelers (who have knowledge of the future) have to act and ensure that their past selves get on that flight in 2004. If they fail to do so, space-time will be ripped apart and, as Ms. Hawking stated, everyone will die.

At the end of the issue, Reed warns the others that because the time loop has now been closed, Doom may very well reappear right in front of them (biggie):



And sure enough, the very last panel shows Doom reappearing in the very room the Beyonder banished him (biggie)



Thus, the Beyonder at the end of the Secret Wars banished Doom across space and time back to the very moment he snatched him from, completing the circle.

How will LOST end? How about a montage of all the Losties, most now in their sixties, watching their younger counterparts board Flight 815 from afar, thus ensuring the space-time continuum won't be ripped apart? They could call it "Full Circle" or, more likely perhaps, "Ouroboros." Probably won't happen, but that's my current prediction, not that it explains Smokey at all.

Of course, he's probably just Galactus in disguise. :)

Welcome To The Presidency, Mr. Obama...

Marvel used to have a recurring headline they often used whenever a superhero team got a new member: "Welcome to the _____, _____ ... hope you survive the experience." The issue that comes most to my mind is X-Men #171 when Rogue joined:


As ecstatic as I am over Obama winning, he's now being given a Presidency that's going to have to deal with a myriad of problems right off the bat, problems that are going to have to be solved (or at very least improved upon) quickly and successfully. It's a daunting task, to be sure, and while I believe that Obama's pragmatism and intelligence will be able to carry him through the mess that's he inheriting, I can't help but wonder if he feels at all daunted at the enormity of the task he now faces. One thing is for sure - he sure didn't show it last night. Simply an incredible moment in our nation's short history.

Couple election observations:

1) I just finished reading Millennial Makeover, which argued that not only would 2008 be a realigning election (I think the jury is still out on that one), but that it would be shaped by the largest generation to enter the voting population since the baby boomers. This year, I think they got it half right. Young voters (18-29), of which nearly all are from the Millennials, comprised 18% of the electorate and went for Obama 66-32%, the most overwhelmingly democratic group of the populace. Obama tapped into them by speaking to them on their level, through the internet and on cell phones, and by calling them into service. But the democratic tidal wave down ballot that most pundits expected really didn't materialize as House and Senate candidates seem to have generally underperformed expectations and several ballot measures were defeated as well.

But the thing to remember here is that the entire Millennial Generation won't fully reach voting age until 2020. In some ways, Obama would have been better off running in 2012 or 2016 since they'll make up a much larger share of the electorate then. But if Obama has a successful first term and lives up to the very gaudy expectations of this group, I think the democratic tsunami could actually come in 2010 (a redistricting year) and 2012, because there will be such a larger portion of the electorate. No pressure.

2) Obama ran one of the best campaigns I've ever seen - he won Indiana on the ground game alone - and it will be dissected, analyzed and likely copied by everyone who runs four years from now. Check out the NY Times' take on Obama's campaign - great read.

3) And if you want something completely different, check out this hilarious roundtable discussion Red State had yesterday while they were killing time (it used to be on their front page, but I guess they took it down). A sample:

An anniversary has recently passed. On October 25, 3018 ThirdAge, Elrond Half-elven, son of Eärendil of the line of Thingol,bearer of Vilya the great Ring of Power, made a critical decisionfor his people.

Rather than allow the last remaining outposts of the Elves atImladris and Lothlórien continue without disruption from theoutside world, he chose to invest the Elves in a grand global fightto rob Sauron of his power permanently, in the process destroyingthe Rings of Power of his own and Galadriel's. At the Council ofElrond, a Fellowship was constructed, representing Elves, Men,Wizards, Dwarves, and Halflings, all united by a supposed commoncause.

But where are the Elves now? All gone West. Was this great actof foreign policy by Elrond a self-destructive act? Would Elves nothave been better off allowing Sauron to remain, acting as acounterweight to the Men, and preventing Men from being anundisputed hyperpower in Middle-earth?

Awesome.

Comic Books and Lost, Part I

I've been meaning to write about this for quite a while, but just haven't found the time until now. Having been a comic book buff all my life, it's difficult for me to watch the show and not be reminded of certain stories and themes from various comics, especially considering the fantastical nature of the show. In many ways, Lost reminds me of one of those "TWELVE ISSUE LIMITED MINI-SERIES" that DC and Marvel used to pump out with regularity back in the 80's. And the way the show is structured around flashbacks gives the show the sort of a "See ish 159 - ed.!" connectivity and history that comics used to traditionally provide.

I've already written on how the time travel aspect of Lost reminds me of "Days of Future Past" and, while there's been no indication from Darlton that that particular story has influenced the show, it's such a famous tale it would certainly be one of the more likely candidates. But I'd also like to talk about three comic book stories, much less well known than DofP, that remind me a bit of what's been going on in Lost the past few seasons. As I started writing this, it turned out to be a much larger post than I expected, so I'm breaking it up into three.

The common thread through all these is the Fantastic Four, not necessarily because they were one of my favorites (which they were), but more because the nature of their adventures involved quite a bit of time and interdimensional travel. Two of these stories also involve a character called the Beyonder, an omnipotent being who later turned out to be a rogue fragment of a Cosmic Cube, something which sounds suspiciously like Ben's famous magic box. All of these stories came out in the 80's and early 90's.

1. Fantastic Four Vol. 1, Issues 337-341

For six glorious years, famed comic book writer and artist John Byrne (the same artist coincidentally who drew the aforementioned DoFP story) inked and wrote Fantastic Four during the eighties. It's largely considered to be one of the best runs of the comic in its 45 year history. Following Byrne's time on the book, the FF comic entered a three-year period of turmoil, going through a variety of writers and artists, all of whom were pretty poor in comparison to Byrne and never really managed to capture the larger-than-life feel the comic had during his tenure.

Enter Walt Simonson. Starting in issue 337 (Click on the pics for biggie versions), Walt, who had single-handedly resurrected Thor as a Marvel title during the eighties, took full control over the FF, both writing and inking. Style-wise, his art is like no other, a helter-skelter sketchy style that on one hand is very simplistic, yet still filled with eye-popping details. Simonson, along with Byrne, actually used Reed Richards in the way he should be used, fueling FF stories with his brilliant inventions and making lots of very, very long words come out of his mouth. Comic readers sometimes hate Reed, because they think he's boring, but I only think he's boring when he isn't written well. If he is, he's the most versatile character in the Marvel Universe because he can create anything. Kinda of a stretchy deus ex machina, if you will.

Simonson's first tale was one of cosmic proportions: a five-issue, time travel story that contained one of the best holy crap, jaw-dropping shock endings of a comic book I've ever read (coming at the end of issue 338), very similar to a classic Lost ending. For those of you who may wish to read these comics in the future (and you can buy them very cheaply on eBay), I will not spoil that surprise. But here's the basic gist of the story...

The comic opens with an alarm sounding in FF headquarters. Someone has set a bomb, trying to destroy Reed's latest research project. The project is saved, but it turns out to be something secret Reed hasn't revealed to everyone else on the team. In fact, Reed has built his entire research area in a small pocket dimension inside Four Freedoms Plaza. While the entire sequence is too long to go into here, this little snippet gives you a taste of how Simonson wrote Reed. "Tesseract volume analog" may invite snickers from some, but 1) Simonson made no pretensions of sticking with actual science (or traditional science fiction) throughout his run as long as it sounded fantastic and cool and 2) it's certainly better than midichlorians, right? But I digress. Of course, everyone on the team wants to know what he's working on. Reed explains with the little time experiment below.

Basically, somewhere in the future, is a "time bubble" containing a Celestial, an ancient God in the Marvel Universe, who is creating a terrible weapon. The bubble protects this weapon and no one has been able to time travel inside the bubble or out. Furthermore the bubble is expanding, such that thirty-five years into the future time ceases to exist. Reed, with the help of Iron Man and Thor, construct a Time Sled with which they hope to penetrate the bubble and destroy the weapon. It's just a terrific tale with a terrific ending and, as I said before, the shocker in the middle of the story is one of the best I've ever read in a comic. (Note: at this time Ben Grimm, the Thing, is human and Ms. Marvel, Sharon Ventura, has been transformed into a She-Thing. Don't ask. It's a remnant of the regime before Simonson took over. 'Nuff said.)

So what does this story have to do with Lost? Well, the time bubble is the obvious connection, given that we've never gotten a real explanation for the barrier surrounding the Island. Plus, now that time seems to be moving differently between the two zones, it makes me think of it even more. In addition, the bubble in the comic was artificially created to protect the Celestial's weapon. I think I've always assumed that the bubble surrounding the Island was a natural thing, i.e. a by-product of the Island's mysterious properties. But what if the bubble was actually artificial, something erected to protect the Island and the black box at its center? And, even more importantly, what if the bubble was something that could be turned off or even destroyed? And, and... what happens if the Island's barrier starts to expand? Makes you think, eh?

Another connection to Lost was in the way Reed and company entered the bubble, navigating its perimeter at a very precise trajectory, much like Frank and Michael were instructed to do with the Island barrier. But what happens if you don't? Do you just get bounced back like Desmond did? Or can something worse happen if you get trapped in the barrier around the island? I was honestly surprised when Michael did actually make it through the barrier okay. Part of me thought that he might have been trapped in the bubble and he and Walt were both spit out years older. Obviously we now know that's not the case, but the nature of the barrier has never been fully explained.

In the comic, as Reed penetrated the bubble, an infinite number of copies of the sled were created, representing an infinite number of possible futures. Reed says he has to find the one, true timeline in the bubble's center and must enter into a turbulence-filled, wormhole-like"vortex" in order to do so. Now Lost doesn't seem to subscribe to an infinite probability-type future, given that everyone seems to have a specific fate on the show (or at least we've been led to believe so far). But given the theory that Ben and Charles are one and the same, an infinite number of copies makes me go hmmm...

When Reed finally emerges in the bubble's center, he found he and the sled were out of phase with the time inside, moving at a much faster speed than its inhabitants. Reed's explanation for this is that the bubble, since it was growing, was creating a "time-dilation effect," slowing down time inside. This effect is obviously very similar to what's happening to time on the Island, though not to the same degree that it's happening in the comic. But I do think that an "out-of-phase" effect to that degree could be something the show visits in the future. I've long thought that one of the explanations to all the coincidences between the characters was that someone we know (likely Desmond) who goes back in time to coordinate everything and make sure everyone gets on the plane. Of course, it would be helpful if he could go back and move around unseen, something this effect would allow him to do.

So that's all I'll talk about this tale, one which I highly recommend, especially if you're a Marvel fan. Chances are, Darlton has never even heard of this story, given that, as far as I know, it largely flew under the radar to anyone but the geekiest of comic book geeks *ahem*. But as the show has progressed with more and more of a time travel storyline, I keep being reminded of it and I thought it would be fun to share it with everyone. In the next installment, I'll talk a bit about the Marvel Secret Wars and how that tale (which WAS a Marvel classic) might relate to Ben's black box. :)