Inspiration is a funny thing.
Plenty of blog-worthy items emerged last week - a controversial Supergirl appearance, that ’70s meme and the triumphant return of It! The Living Colossus to name but three - but nothing prodded the interest of yours truly.
Fortunately, the Internet is a vast and mysterious realm that holds many surprises. Just as your Friend in the Fortress was set to take few days off, a Blog@Newsarama item managed to ignite our rusty synapses.
Buried beneath a “no-duh” entry on Willam Moulton Marston (He enjoyed unconventional relationships with women? Who’da thunk!) was a brief mention of 8th Man - a robotic super-hero with a human brain.
The reference doesn’t go much beyond the character’s reliance on cigarettes (!) to recharge his batteries, but was enough to jog the memories of an old-school anime fan weened on Astro Boy, Kimba The White Lion and Gigantor.
Years before Paul Verhoeven stumbled acrosss a similar concept, Kazumasa Hirai and Jiro Kuwata spun the tale of a police detective who was brutally murdered by gangsters and resurrected as an android.
The detective - now known as “8th Man” - possessed super-speed and could shape-shift at will. Rather than reveal his new identity to family and friends, the hero returned to the police force in disguise and waged a lonely war against crime.
According to Wikipedia, Hirai and Kutwata’s manga series ran from 1963-66. We remember the character, though, from the black-and-white cartoon series that was imported to the United States a few years later.
(The newly Americanized hero also received the name “Tobor” - a typical touch of Silver Age subtlety.)
Of course, the young Fortress Keeper was, amazed by Tobor’s predicament. A reluctant hero who kept himself isolated from those he loves? For a child who had yet to read a Spider-Man comic, the concept was revolutionary.
Plus, 8th Man was a robot - a fact that is simply awesome in any day and age.
There were also mad scientists, damsels in distress and killer robots that disguised themselves as briefcases. (Take that, Transformers … )
Clearly, the cartoon played a major role in our socialization - or lack thereof.
Even after we had grown and dedicated ourselves to more “mature” pursuits (such as … um … collecting Machine Man comics), we fondly recalled the hero’s adventures and wondered why others didn’t share our enthusiasm.
In fact, Mrs. Keeper didn’t even believe 8th Man existed until we found a VHS recording of the series a few years ago at Le Video in San Francisco.
The show was definitely dated (i.e. the hero’s cigarette-shaped “energy pills”) but - much like those groovy Spider-Man cartoons of the ’60s - 8th Man served as a welcome reminder of why your humble host originally fell in love with super-heroes.
You can’t ask much more from nostalgia, right?
