Joker in
the Sunlight
Or
The Green Hair has it
By
Oh Susano weeps an ocean.
Fools’ Poker’s a chancy,
tricksy, yet stirring game
laughs Aunt Nancy,
raking in the pot.
Sticky-fingered Brother
Lepus dealt
a card dropped
face up. Before Loki glints
a regal, radiant, royal
dame
Loki winks,
with a medial spin and
shifty motion
the Queen became a Joker
in the sunlight.
Bedecked and Bedeviled
Count Bruga (1931)
Part One: Lily Bugov, Countess Idivzhopu
Section One: What lies beyond the Mountains?
Admittedly there is a
certain symmetry in believing that Doc Savage’s arch enemy was also his son.[1]
If the child of Doc Savage and Lily Bugov had used a potion to artificially age
himself, as suggested by Rick Lai, it could account for the great discrepancy
in age.[2]
It also true that Sunlight often acts like a teenager given to petulance and
odd choices in clothing. However I find that I am forced to dismiss the notion
that Sunlight was Doc Savage’s son and agree with Carey in his speculation that
John Sunlight and Lily Bugov were the same person.
Mr. Carey’s theory that
John Sunlight was Lily Bugov unfortunately has one major problem, this being
that John Sunlight was undeniably male. Carey suggests that she became a man
because she could not achieve a lust for power as a woman. How was this gender
transformation accomplished? Was it through mere transvestitism, or more radically,
through surgery?
The surgical procedure
for changing a man into a woman was in its infancy in the 1930s. The procedure
for altering a woman into a man is far more complicated and was not
successfully achieved until the 1950’s. The transvestitism angle might have
worked but for the fact that Lily was described as having very large breasts,
even with severe binding the massive breasts would be hard to conceal. Now Lily
could have simply had a double mastectomy and faked the rest but it should be remembered
that Sunlight had been a solider in the Soviet army, such major scarring would
have been hard to hide. If, as Carey suggests Sunlight was able to heal his
scarring by imbibing the elixir created by Baron Von Hessel, the elixir would
have healed the scarring but would have also undone any surgical modifications.
In A Feast Unknown it is revealed
that in the ceremonies of the Nine, a man’s testicle is routinely removed and
eaten like a communion wafer. However due to the healing properties of the Elixir
the testicle eventually regenerates, ergo the removed breasts would have
therefore re-grown.
If it was unlikely for
Lily Bugov to transform herself into man either through surgery or through
transvestitism, it would appear that Mr. Carey’s theory is proven false. That
is unless you look at the theory from another angle and examine evidence that
might appall some Doc Savage fans. Lily Bugov did not become John Sunlight but
was already John Sunlight. To quote another hero in the Wold Newton Universe, “That
ain’t no woman, it’s a man, man!”.[3] In other words Lily Bugov did not exist—as a
woman!
Haven’t I just
contradicted myself? Haven’t I just stated that Lily Bugov could not have
become John Sunlight without undergoing massive surgery because of her large
breasts? That is true, if those breasts were real. While it is true that Lily
Bugov displayed her breasts in gowns that accentuated her cleavage, it is also
true that for the most part she was never seen up close except by Clark Savage
and the Baron’s inner circle. Usually when Lily was paraded before the men
under the Baron’s command or the men in the prison camp, Lily was in the
distance.
On the occasions that
Clark Savage was in relatively close proximity to the Countess he had been
distracted. On the first occasion Baron Karl laid out a sumptuous culinary
feast that overwhelmed the half starved Savage’s senses.
Despite his training and
prodigious skill in many disciplines it should be remembered that Clark Savage
was not yet at the height of his powers. Despite his gifts he was a sixteen
year old boy being seduced by two masters in the arts of seduction,
manipulation and misdirection. Lily’s Bugov’s large, half displayed bosom was
an intentional bit of misdirection drawing all eyes towards this portion of her
anatomy. In doing so it kept attention away from other areas of her body. The
large, half displayed breasts drew attention away from a close examination of
her face and her throat. It was the latter that was most important although not
critical.
One method that is often
used to unmask male transvestites is by examining the adam’s apple. While this
is usually effective it isn’t 100 percent accurate. The adam’s apple is a protrusion composed of thyroid
cartilage. The larynx is surrounded by a skeleton of cartilage
plates that prevents it from collapsing. The Adam's apple, properly called the prominentia
laryngea, is the central ridge where two plates of cartilage meet. The size
of the adam’s apple varies from individual to individual and although the
adam’s apple is often seen as a secondary sexual characteristic, it really is
not one. Although generally men have more prominent adam’s apples than women,
this is not always the case. Some men have small adam’s apples and some women
have large ones. Lily Bugov seems to have a small adam’s apple, perhaps like
Anne Coulter.
The first false bosom was
patented in 1858 and was a wire frame device.[4]
This was later surpassed by rubber bosoms but these also had problems with
distension or deflation. I suspect that the Baron’s genius was able to
construct a wire frame device covered with flesh toned latex rubber that
created the illusion of breasts.
While I admit that this theory
that Lily’s large breasts were false can also bolster Mr. Carey’s theory of
Sunlight being a woman. Instead of a man Lily could have been a flat chested
woman who used these enhancements as an allure. This then removes the need for
Lily to undergo a double mastectomy in order to become John Sunlight.
However I have found
other pieces of evidence which I believe can bolster my theory. The Countess is
described as having broad shoulders and thin hips. These are physically male
attributes; generally a woman has slim shoulders and wide hips.
Another clue lies in her
name, Lily Bugov. In Russian naming conventions surname endings are determined
by gender. ov is a masculine ending and
ova, as one might expect, is a female ending,. Lily Bugov should have been
named Lily Bugova A careful researcher such as Philip Jose Farmer would have
undoubtedly known this, so the masculine ending is undoubtedly a clue as to
“Lily’s” real gender.
There are other clues as
well.
One of Lily’s attendants
is a big brute of a man named Zad. He is assigned to bath Clark Savage and
makes suggestive comments and gestures while forcibly stripping Savage for his
bath. Losing his temper Clark Savage defeats the huge Cossack in a fight.
Savage encounters Zad a couple of more times in the book. At one point Zad
blows him a kiss. Now this could be simply mockery but it could also point to
Zad’s homosexual orientation. This may be among the reasons he was “Lily’s”
attendant. He attended all of
“Lily’s” needs.
The fact that camp was named
Loki may also point to some male to female transvestitism going on, for
according to the myths Loki disguised himself as a woman quite often, and
indeed once physically transformed himself into a female. To retrieve Thor’s hammer, Loki traveled to
Jotunheim disguised as Freya’s Handmaiden. When the great walls Asgard was
being built by a giant who has asked for the moon, suns and goddess Freya in
payment the gods had agreed if he completed the task with in a certain time.
The builder had a giant horse Svaðilfari with whose help he was easily going to
make the deadline. Loki transformed himself into a mare and lured the giant
stallion away, preventing the builder from completing the task on time. Loki
returned a few months later with a colt. Loki had not only transformed himself
into a mare he had also allowed himself to be mounted. Loki was also known for
having lured the goddess Idunn away from Asgard where she was captured by a
giant. Significantly Idunn was the cultivator of the golden apples which gave
the Gods immortality. When she was captured the gods began to age. Most version
of the tale have Loki luring her away as himself, although in a couple versions
he did so as a woman. Finally Loki assumed the guise of an old woman to learn
the secret of Balder’s vulnerability, a secret that resulted in Balder’s death.
Farmer does not specify
what sort of sexual liaison went on between Lily Bugov and Clark Savage jr. He
does however point out that
Although Baron Karl
states that Lily believes that she is the next Catherine the Great, the next
Cleopatra, we have only his word that she is sexually promiscuous. The only
sexual act that she is depicted as having in Escape From Loki is with Clark Savage Jr.
At the end of Escape From Loki Lily is savagely attacked
by a Sergei Khutzinov, a young Russian soldier who slashed her face with a
bayonet, damaging the eye and leaving a great scar on her forehead and cheek.
Just as an aside, is it possible that Sergei Khutzinov was merely an invention
of Philip Jose Farmer? There seems very little doubt that the “Countess was
attacked but perhaps the attacker was not this Sergei Khutzinov. The name
Khutzinov may be a bit of a joke by Farmer as well as being both a clue and a
deliberate mislead. The name Khutzinov may equal the phrase Cuts it off.
Who attacked Lily and
why? In A Feast Unknown Farmer tells how the repressed Doc Caliban was
sexually suppressed due to his strong moral background, over large genitals and
lack of familiarity with women. On one case he was drugged and tied down by a
female criminal who raped him. The loss of his control so infuriated Doc
Caliban that he broke his bonds and then literally twisted the woman’s head off
of her neck. Although I agree with the position that in the Wold Newton
universe at least, Doc Savage and Doc Caliban were two different people, their
lives ran a very close parallel course, designed by the Nine. Could the young
Doc Savage have committed a similar act?
As the story went Young
Savage interrogated Lily Bugov about the Baron’s formula when she was suddenly
attacked by this soldier, which happened so rapidly Savage had no chance to
stop. Later it is said he wished he had interviewed her privately. Given
Savage’s proximity to her and his superlative reflexes it seems odd that he
could not have overpowered the mad Russian. One also has to wonder where the
Russian prisoner had acquired the bayonet. There is also the odd fact that the
Savage would ask her about the Baron’s highly secret project in front of her
attendants and the room full of prisoners.
Consider this as an
alternative theory. What if Savage had in fact taken Lily into a private room
to interrogate her? What if she had tried to vamp him once again? However this
time Savage was not exhausted and half starved. His mind was clear and he
suddenly perpetrated Lily’s hoax. Realizing how he had been mislead and tricked
into engaging in behavior that would
have been repugnant even to his enlightened attitudes he attacked Lily
with the bayonet. The bayonet bisecting the eye and scarring of the face are
very symbolic. The bayonet, a phallic symbol raping the face that had deceived.
The eye hearkening back to the old biblical adage, if thine eye offends, pluck
it out. The bisected eye would also leave a puckered scar that could have
seemed faintly vaginal. As if Doc had given this false woman a permanent
symbolic brand. Yet given the clue of Khutzniov or cuts it off, did the
mutilation end there? Did Doc with crude
surgery emasculate “Lily” making “Lily” into a caricature of the sex she
pretended to be?
Doc heard that long after
the crash that Lily had her back broken and had been paralyzed from below the
waist. Perhaps this paralysis was not the result of a train crash but rather
from a bayonet being used in two other regions below the waist.[5]
If our theory about Lily
actually being a man is true it may explain one of the reasons why Doc Savage
had such difficulty relating to women. The psychological impact of Clark Savage
jr. having been fooled by such a disguise would have alone been disillusioning
to the nascent superman. Then there is the special impact that his first sexual
encounter was tainted not only by deception but that it had been tantamount to
homosexual rape, even if
Why
would “Lily” undergo the pretense of being a woman? As with many of the aspects of “Lily’s” life,
there seem to be two main answers to this question. First and foremost was that
it was an effective disguise; the second answer was that it allowed for him to
openly express his sexual desires.
The trap was designed to
lure Clark Savage Jr into being under the influence of Baron von Hessel, either
through bribery via the elixir of life or via blackmail courtesy of Lily.[7]
Lily Bugov, Countess Idivzhopu may have been an entirely
fictitious name. The name Lily means virtue and purity, which is the diametric
opposite of what the Countess supposedly was. This flipside name may have been
another clue that the Countess pretended to be something other than she was.
The name Bugov may also have been a modification of Bogrov, Ivan Zarov’s most
famous impersonations. Farmer may have deliberately altered the name to Bugov
to create a punish name Bugov equally Bug off, this is especially true when the
Countess’ estate name is taken into account, Idivzhopu seems to be a
modification of the phrase Eedeh vy zhopu, which is Russian for Go to
Hell. Therefore taken together Bugov, Idivzhopu
form Bug off, Go to hell
We
are given rather scant information about “Lily’s’ background and most of it
from two rather unreliable sources. The first source of information is from
Baron Karl. He merely states that she was the daughter of a Russian Count who
opened property and thousands of peasants. She had on occasion severely whipped
for her own amusement. However the Russian Revolution had caused her holdings
to fall into the hands of the peasants. She had escaped with some of her jewels
but had to trade on her sexuality and beauty to find a position of luxury and
comfort.
The
second source of information was Sergei Khutzinov, a young Russian soldier who
attacked the Countess and slashed her face with a bayonet, damaging the eye and
leaving a great scar on her forehead and cheek. Khutzinov said he had attacked
the Countess because he had been one of the peasants on her estates. The Bugov
family had held manhunts in which peasants were hunted like game. Khutzinov’s
brother had been killed by Lily on one such a manhunt.
Although
this statement may not be entirely truthful, in that the source may not have
been Seregi Khutzinov but may have been Lily. Couched in a sexual boast about
always getting “her” man Lily may have boasted about the hunting activities of
the “Bugov” family. Despite what source that was its origin the story allows us
to pinpoint “Lily’s” origins a little better. In Richard Connell’s famous short
story, “The Most Dangerous Game” General Zaroff, another Russian émigré,
conducts manhunts on his island retreat. Zaroff owned an island in the
In
a bizarre bit of synchronicity Doc Savage also had an adventure on a very
similar island. On this island a Count Ramadanoff and his brother used a similar
method of luring and trapping ships. The ships’ crews however were not taken
primarily for hunting but rather to work in a mine on the island. The escapees
however were hunted. General Zaroff’s island was in the
Rick Lai has suggested in his article that The Brother’s Zaroff that the General
Zaroff and Count Ramandoff were brothers, although he speculates that the
incidents took place on two different islands. As Count Ramandoff lay dying he
told Doc Savage that he had assumed the name of the real Count Ramandoff after
his men had murdered the real Count.
Since Connell wanted to tell the story of a big
game hunter who had to pit his wits and skill against a madman who hunted human
prey and he left out Sanger’s description of the slave operation as an
unnecessary distraction. This left the door however for Dent to tell the fuller
story of the island hellhole, however he had to keep out elements that were too
like Connell’s account. What emerges from a combination of the two stories is
that a group of Russian aristocratic exiles took refuge on a
A true autocrat Zaroff lived apart from the other
exiles who ran the mining operation and slave pens. Intractable slaves were
given the chance for freedom if they participated in Zaroff’s hunt. The trophy
heads dissuaded most from participating in this contest.
After Sanger defeated Zaroff and left him for
dead, his younger brothers killed him under the pretense of putting him out of
his misery. After killing his brother one of the brothers assumed command of
the island. However he felt guilt over the act, considering it murder. This was
the man Dent called Count Ramandoff.
Unless
manhunts were a widespread practice among the Russian aristocracy, there was
undeniably some connection between “Lily’s” family and General Zaroff. In fact,
“Lily” was a Zaroff or Zarov rather than a Bugov for as we will show later,
“Lily’s”
name and title were entirely fictitious. According to “The Most Dangerous Game”
the Zarov family had large holdings in the
This
information prompted a further research into the Russian Archives, assisted by
Russian archivist Natalya Simonova. According to his research Ivan Zarov, the
youngest son’s share of the inheritance would have been minimal, as would any
title he might have received. He needed another means to achieve power and
prestige and so Ivan Zarov became an agent of Ohkrana. One of his earliest
investigations was into the activities of a man named Dmitri Bogrov. Bogrov was
the son of a wealthy Jewish attorney from
In 1911 Dmitri Bogrov, the supposedly
loyal Ohkranka agent, assassinated the then
Russian Prime Minister Petr Stolypin in the Kiev Opera House in front of Tsar Nicholas II. Bogrov was sentenced to death by the
district military court. He was executed on September 24 (September 11 old
style), 1911. The investigation of Stolypin's assassination was discontinued by
the order of Nicholas II.
The execution was a sham but the Dmitri
Bogrov identity had to be discarded. After 1911 the name Ivan Zarov once more
appeared in a few messages available in the archives. It is not certain what he
was doing but it appears that he was still working as an agent provocateur
among the various democratic and socialist organizations that had been
clamoring for reforms in the Tsar’s autocratic rule since 1905. Besides
stirring up the Socialists Ivan Zarov also had contacts with Polish
nationalists and worked in the sections of the Russian Empire that had once
been Polish territory. Among the contacts that Zarov made in Russian Poland was
the Prussian Baron Karl Von Hessel. Records indicate that Von Hessel may have
been a double agent working for both German intelligence and for the Ohkranka.
His first allegiance seems to have been towards
Although this is the first recorded
contact between Ivan Zarov and Baron Karl von Hessel, it may not have been. As
early as 1906 Baron Von Hessel was on occasion seen in
Section II
Wolf’s Cub
The connection between Rasputin and
Baron Karl Von Hess is an intriguing one. In Son of Holmes, John Lescroat reported that Auguste Lupa a.k.a Nero
Wolfe’s birth name was John Hamish Holmes, the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene
Adler. He also revealed that Grigori Rasputin was the son of Professor
Moriarty. This would make Baron Von Hessel and Grigori Rasputin half brothers.
It is unknown if either knew of their relationship, or that Moriarty even knew
about Rasputin until they became involved with the Nine, since there is
evidence that Rasputin was also an agent of the Nine.
Win Eckert has speculated the Lily Bugov
was “the
granddaughter of Sir William Clayton and Sir William’s wife, a Russian woman
named Natalie, daughter of the Prince of Kiev, who disappeared shortly after
their wedding in 1855.” I agree
with this genealogy but dispute the gender of “Lily”. Natalie had run off with
a former suitor, the heir of the Zarov family, having married Sir William only
at her father’s insistence. Sir William was the grandfather then of Count Zarov
and his brothers.
Lily was referred to as Baron Karl’s
mistress, if Lily was truly Ivan Zarov a man, was this merely a cover story?
For the most part I believe that it was part of their cover however it should
be remembered that in earlier portions of his life, Baron Karl had been a
sailor. Sodomy although extremely frowned upon in most Navies, was not
uncommon. We know of three sexual encounters that have been accounted to Baron
Karl, two in his persona of Wolf Larsen and one as Baron Karl. As Larsen he
wed, bedded and quickly abandoned
One has to wonder if
perhaps, Baron Karl Von Hessel merely had sexual relations with these women
with the express purpose of begetting a child.
In his persona of Wolf
Larsen, Baron Von Hessel was involved in a strange triangular relationship
between Humphrey Van Weden and Maud Brewster.
The Sea Ghost rescued Humprey Van Weden after the ship he had been
traveling upon collided with a steamer. Larsen forced the weak young man into
virtual slavery to work for his passage on the ship. Van Weyden was a highly
educated man and Larsen was a self taught genius. Larsen formed an odd bond
with Van Weyden due to Larsen’s need for intellectual stimulation. In Van
Weyden’s mind they formed an affiliation much like a master and a favored
slave. However Larsen may have seen the association in a different light,
viewing himself as the dominant member of relationship that satisfied his
emotional, intellectual and possibly his sexual needs. While Van Weyden was still
on board the Sea Ghost also picked up another castaway, Maud Brewster a female
scholar and poetess. Van Weyden was immediately attracted to her because of her
intellect and her beauty.
The collapse of the brute
Larsen after such a minor wound can be attributed to two causes. The primary
cause is that Larsen was indeed ill and was suffering from a medical condition
that affected his neurology. This condition, which we suppose to have been a
brain tumor or a series of strokes would worsen causing blinding headaches,
paralysis and eventually his death in the novel. A secondary but lesser reason
is that Larsen collapsed out of a sense of despair and betrayal. Part of why
Larsen made a coarse courtship of Maud Brewster may not have been so much
because he desired her but because Van Weyden did.
In a sense Larsen was
reasserting his dominance over Van Weyden demonstrating to Van Weyden that he
was still Van Weyden’s master, holding such power over Van Weyden that he could
deny Van Weyden what he most desired. Rape being an act of violence rather than
love or lust, Larsen also wished to violently avenge himself on this woman who
had stolen Van Weyden’s affections. Yet at the same time Larsen made overtures
to Maud Brewster in an attempt to make Van Weyden jealous. However when Van
Weyden chose Brewster over Larsen to extent of literally stabbing him in the
back, this made Larsen realize that despite all of his overtures towards Weyden
that Van Weyden would never impale him with anything but a knife. Even the
strongest man can be brought to his knees by unrequited love. It is telling
that when Larsen is afflicted by blinding pain he called out for Hump, his
nickname for Humphrey Van Weyden.
Although it is possible
that reading homosexual connotations into the relationship between Wolf Larsen
and Van Weyden may be stretching things, one should note that a slang term for
a predatory homosexual during the turn of the century was a wolf. Also the
general depictions of a homosexual pairing during that era were of a strong
masculine figure coupled with a weaker, effeminate man. The latter was known as
a punk or a sissy, which is how Van Weyden was called aboard the ship. [9]
If Karl Von Hessel a.k.a.
Wolf Larsen was indeed a homosexual, or at least a bisexual with a preference
for men, then why did he bed and abandon two women, rape one and attempt to
rape a third? The answer to this question also resolves the mystery of his
neurological condition, his longevity and apparent resurrection from death and
his relationship with Rasputin and Ivan Zarov.
Karl Von Hessel was born
in 1858 the son of Professor James Moriarty and Amalie Luise, the younger
sister of Count Karl Frederick, a member of the Danish nobility with ties to
the Royal family and to the house of
When James Moriarty concluded
his European lecture series he returned to
While
James Moriarty was giving birth to his greatest work, Amalie Luise gave birth
to his two sons, whom she named Karl and Jeppe. Unwilling to dishonor her
family with illegitimate children she sent them to be raised as simple peasant
children by the relatives of one her courtiers. When they were approximately
eight years old James Moriarty found Karl and Jeppe.[10]
At this time James Moriarty was using the name of Nemo and was Captain of the
submersible ship known as the Nautilus. Karl and Jeppe served as cabin boys
aboard the vessel. When the Nautilus sank in the maelstrom off of the coast of
Somewhere
between 1873 and 1880 he was approached by representatives of the Nine who
offered him virtual immortality in exchange for becoming their servant. Through contacts with agents of the Nine Wolf
embarked on an eclectic education in between missions for the Nine. He also
learned the truth about his parentage and his connection to the German and
Danish thrones. Although his studies were informal they revealed him to have an
innate genius for mathematics and chemistry.
In
between missions for the Nine, Wolf’s friendship was cultivated by Iwaldi, one
of the Nine who encouraged his rebellious streak. He helped Wolf establish,
through sophisticated extortion among the aristocracy of
Five years
later he was told to kidnap a certain group of Japanese women and impregnate a
particular woman. Once this had been accomplished he was to let the women
return to their families.
These
two incidents persuaded him break the hold that the Nine had on him. Iwaldi
encouraged him to work on an alternative to the Nine’s Elixir. In a fortuitous
accident, Wolf cultivated a bacteria that exuded the same active ingredient as
the Nine’s elixir. He kept the active samples in his “ancestral” castle.
The
Nine learned that he was seeking to betray them, although they do not seem to
know he had succeeded in creating a life extension formula. He was ordered to
go an extensive voyage and because of his planned betrayal of the Nine he was
denied his yearly dose of the elixir starting in 1891. After the first year he
discovered a rather insidious secret about the elixir; it was addictive. The
addictive element however was not replicated by his bacterial form. His
withdrawal symptoms manifested a severe neurological condition. In 1893, while
Wolf was traveling on The Ghost, a
fire broke out in his “ancestral’ castle and destroyed his bacteriological
samples. Although there is no evidence that the fire in Schloss
Sigmaringen was arson, it seems likely that the Nine destroyed his work.[11] The
neurological condition brought on by Elixir withdrawal caused him to suffer
a brain
aneurism that nearly killed him. Had it not been for the bacterial form of the
elixir in his system, he probably would have died.
Knowing
that his bacteria samples had been destroyed and not wishing to undergo another
withdrawal attack, Wolf attempted to get back into the good graces of the Nine
once more. With his Wolf Larson identity certified as being dead, he assumed
the Karl von Hessel identity full time.[12]
To gain the polish and education that his new role required he attended several
schools from 1895 until 1905.His innate genius served him well and within a
sort period of time he personified his role to such an extent that even at
times even he was almost convinced he had been born a German nobleman. Once his
training had been accomplished, to best serve the interests of the Nine Von
Hessel became part of the Imperial German Secret Service under the guise of
being part of its diplomatic service.
In
this capacity he was first assigned to
As
stated earlier, like Wolf Larsen/Baron Von Hessel, Grigori Rasputin was also
the son of Professor James Moriarty. According to all known records Grigori
Rasputin was born sometime between 1868 and 1873 in
As
detailed in many other articles and novels, James Moriarty, in addition to
being the Napoleon of Crime, was also one of the men who were called Captain
Nemo.[14]
Although no one has yet detailed this, it is believed that in 1868 the two Nautilus
submersibles met and fought off the coast of
The
Nine offered Moriarty an even longer life than that promised by the Capelleans.
To prove that they also had access to knowledge and technology far superior to
the Capelleans, who at best grudgingly provided its adoptees with advanced
technology, the old man with the eye patch sent Moriarty to Tobelesk, Siberia
to look among certain kurgans.
Kurgans
were barrows or burial mounds that dotted the landscape between
With
Anna Egorova and her two children in tow, James Moriarty toured the barrows.
After digging through the rock coverings of several and breaking into them to
discover only ancient artifacts, mummified corpses and the skeletal remains of
horses he began to believe that the old man had in fact been an Eridanean agent
that had successfully gulled him. However one of the barrows was quite
different.
The
walls of this barrow were covered with glyphs comprised of lines, squiggles and
minute squares. There was mummified corpse much like the others only this one
sat in stone throne with a seat of woven metal. Although the metal was
blackened and pitted with age and corrosion it caught his eyes for it was not
made of copper or bronze but rather when scraped yielded a silvery glint like
steel. He noted with a start that the mummy wore a vest of what appeared to a
fragment of a larger piece of clothing. The cloth shimmered like silk yet had
the texture of woven metal. On the shoulder of the vest was a faintly colored
rectangle as if an insignia had been there. The corpse’s skeletal hands
crisscrossed over a hand-sized box. Cracked black ceramic of some type covered
the outside of box but a silvery flash caught Moriarty’s eyes. Ripping the box
from the skeleton’s hands Moriarty’s nails tore at the ceramic which crumbled.
Beneath the black covering were dark lines scribbled upon a piece of glass.
These resembled the hieroglyphics on the wall. Underneath his thumbnail the
darkness was replaced by the shininess of metal.
Moriarty
made an intuitive leap that only one of his level of genius would have made.
This corpse was a space traveler like the Eridaneans and Capelleans. The device
was a sophisticated piece of machinery with the metallic lines being an
integral part of the device’s function.[17]
Moriarty compared the lines in the device to those on the wall and discovered
that they were different. He quickly copied them in his note book. Giddy as a
schoolboy his discovery he impulsively kissed Anna Egorova. Her eyes widened at
this and she ordered her children out of the barrow. She then attacked Moriarty
with the ferocity of a lioness in heat. Instinct won out over intellect.
Moriarty left the village the next day. Nine months later Anna Egorova
presented her husband with a new son. Seduced by the promises of the Nine
Moriarty became one of their servants. He would find it to a devil’s bargain.
Some quirk in his biochemistry allowed the Nine’s elixir to be addictive but
denied him the benefit of its longevity. What’s more it neutralized the
longevity treatment given to him by the Capelleans. When Moriarty realized that
the elixir was not benefiting him he attempted to break from the Nine.
Withdrawal gave him a persisting neurological condition.
Grigori
Rasputin had very formal education but showed flashes of brilliance and
intuition at an early age. At eight years old he denounced a man as a horse
thief. Investigation proved him to be correct. Although his uncovering of the
thief was attributed to mystical powers, he most likely discerned the horse
thief through intuition and observation, like his kinsman Holmes. Grigori
married early but despite this he was a rather wild youth given to drunkenness,
womanizing and thievery. He and his friends were accused but not convicted of
horse thievery. Faced with banishment Grigori proposed that he instead be
allowed to make a
pilgrimage 260 miles northwest to the Verkoturie Monastery.
At
the monastery he underwent a conversion of faith and returned as an ascetic man
of faith. During the next decade he underwent a spiritual journey that led him
to explore various religious beliefs. One sect that struck a chord in him was
the Skoptsy sect. This flagellant cult believed that sin must be experienced
before it could be forgiven. Although it seems that he was never a member of
the sect he seems to have been influenced by it. His spiritual journey was also
a physical one and the Siberian peasant traveled to
It
was most likely during this journey that Rasputin was approached by servants of
the Nine and became one of their servants.
Rasputin
had visited
The Nine
had long range plans for
It
was under their orders that Zarov in his Bogrov guise assassinated Prime
Minister Stolypin. Petr Stolypin had to be eliminated because he was a danger
to the Nine’s plans. His agrarian reforms and ruthless persecution of
terrorists were defusing the long smoldering tensions of the peasant class.
Further more he denounced Rasputin and attempted to discredit him with the
Imperial Couple.
Shortly
after he had become Prime Minister in 1906 an assassination attempt on Stolypin
injured the Prime Minister’s children. Tsar Nicholas sent Rasputin to aid them.
Stolylin recounted that Rasputin ran his pale eyes over him and that Stolypin
began to feel an indescribable loathing for the vermin sitting next to him. He
realized that Rasputin possessed great hypnotic power. Rasputin’s attempt to
control the Prime Minister had failed. His efforts with the Imperial family
however bore fruit by his ability to heal the Imperial heir when he suffered
from life threatening injuries brought on by his hemophilia.
Shortly
after Rasputin’s failed attempt to influence Prime Minister Stolypin a leftist
student by the name of Dmitri Bogrov died while being interrogated by the
Ohkrana. As part of Stolypin’s crack down on revolutionary groups, Ivan Zarov
assumed Bogrov’s identity and infiltrated several leftist groups. Known to
Stolypin, he became one of his most trusted agents.
In
1908 Von Hessel was assigned to take up residence in
In
1910 Baron Von Hessel returned to
There
were no shortage of suspects as to whom had hired Bogrov to kill Stolypin. Various terrorist organizations wanted
Stolypin out of the way because of his oppression. The Bolsheviks wanted
Stolypin dead because his reforms quelled the fires of revolution. The
conservatives wanted Stolypin dead because they feared his liberalism might
expand and end their class privileges.
The Germans also wanted Stolypin out of the way because they feared that
his policies might make Russian even more economically powerful than
After
his successful guise of Dmitri Bogrov came to an end, Ivan Zarov’s rise in the
Ohkrana paralleled the rise of Rasputin in the imperial court. Under many names
he worked as an agent provocateur exposing the conspiracies of leftists and
their Jewish and homosexual allies. It was during this period that Ivan learned
to impersonate a woman with perfection. Despite having obeyed the order of the
Nine Ivan was not allowed to join the Nine as of yet. Von Hessel transfused
some of his blood into Ivan with the hope that the life extending bacterium he
had discovered would be transmitted to Ivan. It was not and this is when Von
Hessel began to suspect that the bacterium in his body was dying out.
Although
Rasputin and Ivan outwardly worked for the good of
As
planned Rasputin worked his way into the inner circle of the
Despite
carrying out his instructions for the Nine, Rasputin had also acquired a true
affection for the Imperial family. In 1914 he obliquely warned Nicholas about
becoming involved in the Balkan situation. Rasputin was summoned back to his
home in Tobolesk and left on the pretext of visiting his family. While in
Tobolesk Rasputin was stabbed in the abdomen by a female follower of his main
detractor Illidor. The wound was so deep and wide that his intestines spilled
out of the wound. He was expected to die. Although the dates for the stabbing
are inexact, author Colin Wilson in The
Occult discovered that Rasputin was stabbed on the same day that the
Archduke Ferdinand was shot to death. The one person that would have advised
Tsar Nicholas not to enter the war was unavailable because of his stab wound.
Rasputin recovered from his seemingly fatal wound and once again took up his
post at the Imperial court.
Realizing
the consequences of crossing the Nine, he went along with their plans. As per
the Nine’s instructions Rasputin advised the Tsar to ignore the advice of his
generals and to take personal command of the war. Once Nicholas was gone
Tsarina Alexandra was in command. Rasputin used his influence over her to place
some of his friends in government posts. Enemies of Rasputin spread innuendo
and gossip about Rasputin’s relationship with the Tsarina, declaring that
Nicholas was a cuckold. His detractors
played up the Tsarina’s Germanic background and promoted the idea that Rasputin
was also a German sympathizer was convincing the Imperial couple to make peace
with
Unbeknownst
to Rasputin, it was Ivan Zarov and Baron von Hessel that were instrumental in creating
the propaganda against Rasputin among the upper and lower classes. The Nine
felt that Rasputin had compromised himself by becoming emotionally attached to
the Imperial family. It was part of Rasputin’s function in their plan for him
to become a lodestone of controversy that reflected badly on the Imperial
family. He was also to advise the Imperial family in such a way that their bad
decisions would further alienate them from their people. He however failed in
this duty.
Ivan
Zarov was able to use his proclivities for homosexuality and cross dressing to
further the plans of the Nine. Using the name Dmitri he befriended the
bi-sexual and cross dressing Prince Felix Yussupov, the Tsar’s nephew. Zarov
convinced Felix to befriend Rasputin and after a time convinced him to partake
in a plot to murder Rasputin. Although in his memoirs Felix states that he had
joined the assassination plot out of political considerations and to 'save'
The
true reason may have been to aid his friend Dmitri, not the Dmitri who was Ivan
Zarov in disguise, but rather Grand
Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the cousin of the Tsar. Dmitri had at one time been
engaged to Olga the daughter of the Tsar. However his friendship with Felix
Yusupov had caused the Tsarina to break the engagement. Many accounts report
the rupture came about because it was believed that the relationship between Dmitri
Paulovich and Felix had been homosexual in nature.[19] This
however does not seem to be the case, the Dmitri who was Felix’s lover was in
fact the cover identity of Ivan Zarov. The similarity of names caused
confusion. Ivan convinced Dmitri Paulovich and Felix to assassinate Rasputin
for several reasons. Ivan had convinced Felix and Dmitri Paulovich that it had
been Rasputin who had spread the lie about them being lovers and had convinced
the Tsarina to cast Dmitri aside. He also convinced them that Rasputin was in
the pay of both the Germans and the socialists and that his influence on the
royal family would cause the Imperium to fall. He pointed out that it seemed to
be Rasputin who kept the Imperial heir alive and if he were removed, the heir
would probably not live to his majority. This would pave the way for Grand Duke
Dmitri to become the next Tsar.
Whether or not Rasputin truly had prescient powers
or was just intuitive enough to realize that events had moved beyond his
control, he did attempt to warn the Imperial family of the plans of the Nine
before his assassination in a document that has come to be known as his last
letter. He warned of his assassination, the coming revolution and the fall of
the aristocracy.[20]
On
Despite
having ensured that Rasputin’s influence on the Imperial family had been
removed so that the Nine’s plans for Russia could move apace, Ivan Zarov discovered that he had to go into
hiding from his fellows in the Ohkrana as the Tsar put pressure on discovering
all of the conspirators in Rasputin’s murder. Ivan Zarov took refuge among his
leftist contacts after the Revolution he was exposed as an Ohkrana agent and as
an aristocrat. Disguised as a woman Ivan fled towards
Meeting
up with Baron Von Hessel, the Baron convinced Ivan to create the identity of
Lily Bugov. It allowed Ivan to hide without fear of discovery and to carry one
a semi open relationship with the Baron that would not cause tongues to wag, at
least with rumors that could have ruined the Baron’s reputation rather than
accentuate it.
Although
Lily’s tryst with Clark Savage Jr. was part of the Baron’s plan to entrap the
young man, it was it was not a chore that “Lily” minded in the least. Lily had
a healthier libido than the Baron, which is why “her” attendants were strapping
men with the same proclivities. However the tryst between Lily and young Savage
caused a rift in the relationship between Lily and the Baron. Lily had become
enamored of the young flier. Although the Baron’s passion had cooled, he was perturbed
at losing Lily’s affection rather than he being to one to cast “her” off.
After
Savage and successfully ruined the Baron’s biological experiments and arranged
the escape from
Returning
to Russia Ivan deliberately created several conflicting stories about his past.
He was a German defector, A Finn, Latvian, Lithuanian or Pole attracted to the Revolution. He had
been wounded fighting against the Whites. Ivan adopted a variation of his
family name Ivan Zarya which translates as John Sunrise or as Lester Dent wrote
it John Sunlight.
Part Two: Ivan Zarya
a.k.a John Sunlight
Section One: The
Monochromatic Maniac
At the beginning of The Fortress of Solitude, John Sunlight
escaped from a Siberian prison camp and discovered quite by accident Doc
Savage’s Fortress of Solitude.
John Sunlight had been sent to the prison camp for “using blackmail on his superior officers in the army to force them to advance him in rank”. The prosecutor found John Sunlight not merely contemptible but a horrible thing. "This thing known as John Sunlight," Serge Mafnoff said earnestly, "is incredible and shocking. We owe it to humanity to see that he is shot." Considering the virulence of Serge Mafnoff’s statements we have to wonder what exactly John Sunlight had used as blackmail against these superior officers.
John Sunlight’s
description is as follows “He resembled a gentle poet, with his great shock of dark hair, his
remarkably high forehead, his hollow burning eyes set in a starved face. His
body was very long, very thin. His fingers, particularly, were so long and
thin--the longest fingers being almost the length of an ordinary man's whole
hand.” With the possible exception
of the hands this description sounds like a clean shaven Rasputin.
That John Sunlight has a commanding
almost mesmeric charisma.
“John Sunlight stepped out
on the bridge of the ice-breaker, and forty-six persons sank to their knees in
craven terror. This pleased John Sunlight. He liked to break souls to do his
bidding.
No one had been killed yet.
The forty-six included the crew of the ice-breaker, and the convicts. For one
of the queerest quirks of John Sunlight's weird nature was that he preferred to
control a mind, rather than detach it from the owner's body with a bullet or a
knife.”
So it would appear that Ivan Zarov alias
Ivan Zarya had learned lessons from both Baron Von Hessel and Rasputin. When one considers our speculations about
Sunlight’s sexual proclivities and about his powerful mesmeric personality it
is not hard to image what the circumstances of blackmail might have been. The
very nature of the acts that were the basis of blackmail would have been enough
to have many people consider John Sunlight a loathsome “thing” However Serge
Mafnoff must have realized that Sunlight had not merely found other officers
who shared his orientation but rather that Sunlight had used his charisma and
hypnotic powers to seduce these men into performing acts that they normally
would not have done. He then either blackmailed them or allowed them to reward
him with promotions. .
Considering his speculated connection to
James Clark Wildman, alias Doc Savage, immaterial of whether John Sunlight was
Lily Bugov or Lily Bugov and Savage’s son, it does seem to be rather
coincidental that Sunlight would just stumble onto the location of Doc Savage’s
Fortress of Solitude. Why did Sunlight command the ice breaker ship to go north
rather than south when they escaped from
While Ivan Zarya was rising through the
ranks of the Soviet Army, his mentor Baron Von Hessel had, by necessity since
the re-creation of his elixir had been destroyed, become a loyal adherent of
the Nine’s plans. In
Von Hessel had kept a close eye on his
grandson however and heard that he had acquired some method for extending his
life span. He wondered briefly if Savage had been recruited by the Nine.
However the Nine discouraged questions and only disseminated information that
would serve their mysterious purposes. Von Hessel also learned that young
Savage had a secret retreat where he created miraculous devices, products,
medicines and even botanical creations. Von Hessel became determined to learn
the location of the secret base. When German Intelligence, which had a
superlative file on Savage, with much of the information having come from Von
Hessel, had reports of Savage on occasion re-fueling an airplane in Western
Soviet territory, he knew the base was somewhere around the North Pole.
Von Hessel made several stratagems to
discover the base or rather have it discovered since the Nine would not allow
him to leave his post in Hungary, although he did travel to the United States
on diplomatic jaunts. He convinced one of Hitler’s Thule Society brothers that
the Polar opening discovered by the Zeppelin O-220 in 1929 should be explored
for possible ties to
His last stratagem involved his sometime
protégé and it was the one which he thought had little chance for success.
Through coded messages he told Ivan about his suspicions about Savage’s secret
hideout. He did not expect much since Ivan was quite content with his position
in the
During the year he was in the Siberian
prison
Chris Carey has speculated that this
could have been an indication of John Sunlight having been a woman. However I
think that the message is even more complex than that. The sisters had nothing
to worry about from John Sunlight because he was homosexual, his masculinity
did not threaten their sexuality. Also the reverse was true, normally John
Sunlight could have seen these amazonian women as sexual competitors, however
as Dent states, “they were a little queer”, which may indicate that they were
lesbians and so were no sexual competition for John.
It is interesting to note that it is said
several times that John Sunlight does not like to kill men but prefer to
control and dominate them. The operative word seems to be men. Although
Sunlight uses Gigantia, Titania and their sister Fifi, he plans to have them
killed once their usefulness ends. Apparently he does not have a deep desire to
control or dominate women, although he does use them as henchmen. Interestingly
enough Sunlight used women as proxies, as his main muscle against Doc Savage.
In The Fortress of Solitude, he used
Titania and Gigantia by manipulating their concern over their sister and by
making them think Savage had killed Fifi. In The Devil Genghis, Sunlight used Toni Lash, a female mercenary
specializing in intelligence work. Perhaps he saw the women as disposable cannon
fodder or perhaps he chose them because he knew of Savage’s discomfort around
women.
Dent may not have known any of this but
even if he did all he could only hint at it in the pulp story. In The Fortress of Solitude Dent tailors
the story to suit his dramatic needs.
One example is John Sunlight’s
relationship with Baron Karl. Baron Karl was the head of a Balkan nation’s spy
system. He characterized as something of a coward and a dandy with an eye for
the ladies. Baron Karl is treated as though he were willingly subordinate to
John Sunlight. Karl is said to be so afraid of John Sunlight that he had
immediately come to
Dent has Baron Karl as being reluctant to
go to the arctic with John Sunlight because of the temperature. However John
Sunlight insists on taking him there to demonstrate a new weapon. In fact how
it evens transpired was probably quite the opposite. Baron Karl demanded to
know the location of the Fortress and insisted on traveling there as Sunlight
tried to forestall him. Although Sunlight met with Baron Karl in the
Sunlight remained uneasy about his deal
with Baron Karl. After Baron Karl the
One of the possible misdirections that
Dent used was in how the relationship between Doc Savage and John Sunlight
played out. After surviving hardship and near starvation, finding and then
attempting to get into the Fortress, John Sunlight steals a great many devices
and then makes a bee line for
Dent stated that John Sunlight wanted to
achieve a utopian world without war or want, ruled by him. Yet his first move
at this was a bit odd. He did not contact any World powers at that time.
Sunlight did not contact the
Once Sunlight had acquired the weapons he
had gone to
Doc Savage, Monk and Ham investigated the
odd happenings at Serge Mafnoff’s home. As they left the house, Gigantia and
Titania rammed their car into Monk’s car and took him captive. They believed
Monk and company were in the employ of John Sunlight, since they had seen Civan
with them.
John Sunlight had kidnapped their sister
to make certain they kept quiet about the blue dome. Monk told them about Doc
Savage and they decided to see if Savage could save Fifi. While they were in
Doc Savage’s office, a plane flew by the window and Fifi’s voice told the girls
not to say anything to Doc Savage. The girls clammed up but Monk told them
about the blue dome. Doc Savage was so shocked at this news he had to
physically calm himself.
Doc and Monk went after the plane while
Ham and Long Tom watched the girls. Monk chased after the plane in a car while
Doc triangulated the radio signal. The plane exploded but Doc was able to
discover where the signal had originated. He found six thugs holding a
diminutive but superbly shaped Fifi Jeeves. Doc rendered the thugs unconscious
through gas and rescued Fifi.
Giganta and Titania had gone wild when
the plane blew up and escaped from Ham and Long Tom. “They left swearing they
were going to join John Sunlight and help him get Savage, to pay Savage back
for causing Fifi's death in the plane."
From the captive thugs Doc Savage learned
that John Sunlight was sequestered in a house on an island in
Doc
Savage decided to make a raid on the island and capture John Sunlight. The
sequence in which this takes place in the novel is a bit odd and telling.
Since
Sunlight had bodyguards prowling his estate and electronic buoys guarding any
approach by water to the house, Doc Monk and Ham donned diving gear and walked
along the river bottom. They intended to scale the cliff face and enter
Sunlight’s stronghold.
When
Doc and his two companions arrived at Sunlight’s headquarters, Doc handed them
each a headset. As soon as they put on the headphones they heard John Sunlight
ask Civan who his greatest enemy had been. Civan said Serge Mafnoff. Sunlight
told Civan how he now had a new great enemy and while he wished to match wits
with him, he had to go to the
Through
the subterfuge of a small fire outside the house, Doc was able to lure away one
of the guards. Doc and his companions entered the house and dropped gas and
smoke grenades. They were confronted by the bull-like Civan who started to
fight with them until ordered by Sunlight not to fight them but to get
Sunlight’s men out of the house.
Doc
ordered Ham and Monk out of the house. They made it out a few moments before
the house exploded.
Doc
had recognized the weapon that killed Serge Maffnoff, he knew from the Jeeves
Sisters that Sunlight knew about the Fortress of Solitude, he heard Sunlight
state he was heading for the Arctic but had not learned the exact location of
his meeting with his two buyers. The King cavorted in nightclubs and so it was
a small matter for Doc to have a bartender slip something into the King’s drink
which temporarily blinded him. Doc and Monk posed as the King bodyguards and
accompanied him to his meeting with Sunlight.
Doc arranged
for little problems that would upset John Sunlight’s carefully orchestrated
schedule such as causing the plane they were on to crash, stranding them with
Sunlight and having King Carol remain blinded so Sunlight had to postpone the
demonstration of his weapon. Gigantia and Titania had been in the role of
cooks. Through ventriloquism and imitation of Sunlight’s voice Doc convinced
the Jeeves sisters that Fifi was alive and well and that they had once again
been manipulated by Sunlight.
Sunlight
kept a watch for Savage and was elated when his men spotted a plane a few miles
from their camp. Doc’s plan went awry when Civan and his men captured Long Tom,
Renny and Fifi Jeeves, who promised to tell Sunlight where Doc Savage was, in
exchange for her own life.
Sunlight had King Carol and his two
bodyguards brought before him. He told them about the story of Doc Savage and
his Fortress of Solitude. His story was interrupted by the arrival of the plane
carrying Civan and his prisoners.
After meeting with Civan John Sunlight
announced that he was going to demonstrate the weapon and he chose the
disguised Doc Savage as the target. He asked Fifi to confirm that the bodyguard
was indeed Doc Savage. Rather than fleeing Doc confronted John Sunlight who
moved out of the way. A melee broke out in camp and John Sunlight ends up
running for his life across the arctic ice. Doc and his men found the tatters
of Sunlight’s clothing next to a Polar bear. They did not however find the
cache of weapons.
When the whole of the first John Sunlight
incident is viewed upon by unbiased eye, we can see that there is another
interpretation the various events and how they were arranged. John Sunlight
kept Doc Savage off balance and played him. When Baron Karl had tempted John
Sunlight with the Fortress of Solitude and its power, the love-hate conflict
that John Sunlight had for Doc Savage came to the forefront and became a
monomania. On one hand he wanted to destroy Doc Savage and on the other hand he
wanted to love him, in the most literal sense.
Sunlight wanted to prove to Doc Savage
that he was worthy of him, so he attempted to outsmart and even to prove he
could kill him. Conversely he wanted Doc Savage to prove that he was worthy of
Sunlight. Each step of the way Sunlight was a couple of steps ahead of Doc
Savage but Sunlight had an unfair advantage, he knew Doc Savage from their
previous encounter and the Baron’s accumulated information on Savage.
Doc Savage was also at a disadvantage
when dealing with Sunlight because there was some unknown quality about
Sunlight that threw him off.
John Sunlight did not go to
He had hypnotized Civan to give Doc
Savage the false story of working for Eli Camel who was heading for
Although his men rescued Civan they
failed to kill Doc’s men. However Sunlight had a back up plan. He knew that the
Jeeves sisters were hunting for their sister and for Sunlight. Sunlight had
arranged for a remote controlled plane that he planned to entice the Jeeves
sisters attack Doc Savage to keep their sister safe. However the sisters played
into his hands by attacking Monk who convinced them to go to Doc Savage’s
headquarters. Sunlight gave them sufficient time to spill some of their story
before sending the plane to fly around Savage’s headquarters and warn the
sisters about spilling the beans about John Sunlight. That Sunlight had
previously arranged for the plane seems fairly obvious. Sunlight would not have
had time to equip a remote controlled radio operated plane and place Fifi in a
secure place on a nearby rooftop within the few moments that it took the Jeeves
sisters to arrive at Doc’s headquarters and tell their story.
Although Sunlight had hoped that when the
plane exploded and the sisters thought Fifi had been killed they would kill Doc
or at least the aides. However they just beat the living tar out of Ham and
Long Tom. Sunlight also miscalculated on how rapidly Doc Savage found the
rooftop that Fifi was being held. Sunlight had planned on Doc Savage capturing
one or two of his men but wanted to keep Fifi in his custody so he could
continue to manipulate the Jeeves sisters.
Sunlight knew that Doc would discover
from his henchmen where his temporary headquarters were. But he also knew Doc
would not move against him once he realized that Sunlight knew about the
strange blue dome. Sunlight moved quickly ahead with his plans the planned to
sell his weapons to two competing nations with the hope that they would
actually use the weapons and destabilize the status quo in
As part of his challenge to Doc Savage he
also wanted to see if Savage could get these weapons away from his clients
before they used them. While Savage was busy retrieving the weapons from Baron
Karl and King Carol, Sunlight planned to further destabilize
John Sunlight knew that Doc Savage had
planted a listening device on his stronghold. He had most likely acquired some
equipment from the Fortress or adapted some it so that he would know when
someone was actively listening to his conversations. He could then feed them
the information he wanted. The most telling example of this is when Doc, Monk
and Ham start to tune in on the listening device after crossing the
That Sunlight knew Doc would eventually
raid the house can be determined by his booby trapping of the house. That
Sunlight was aware that Doc was outside the house when he was talking to Civan
can be seen by how quickly all of his men were evacuated. Sunlight had to
remind the rather dull witted Civan that the house was booby trapped.
Realizing that the house was booby
trapped Doc ordered Monk and Ham outside immediately.
John Sunlight had expected Doc Savage to
pursue him immediately which is why he had arranged for Baron Karl to meet him
a few miles away from the Fortress of Solitude. He thought it would be poetic
justice for he and the Baron to destroy Doc Savage and wreck his plans next to
his stronghold just as Doc Savage had ruined their plans in the Baron’s
stronghold. Despite having left so many clues Doc Savage either overlooked the
obvious or deliberately stayed away from the Fortress so as not to further
reveal its location. Either way, Savage did not arrive before the Baron had to
leave, so this opportunity for revenge was missed.
When Savage and Monk showed up disguised
as the bodyguards of the temporarily blinded King Carol, John Sunlight must
have been almost immediately suspicious. He was probably not certain what
exactly the temporary blindness meant but almost found it too convenient. He
did not know if it was merely a delaying measure or if one of the bodyguard or
both were members of Savage’s crew. When another landed plane was sighted,
Sunlight was certain Savage was close.
Evidence that Sunlight had pierced Doc
Savage’s disguise can be seen in these two passages.
“John Sunlight stood, a tall dark tower of a
figure; he had given up his show of not feeling the cold, and had donned dark
clothing and a black cape and an aviator's black helmet. He presented a picture
that was not in any sense pleasant. He showed his teeth.
"Your master treats you roughly,"
he said.
He spoke these words in the tongue which
Adonis and Beauty were supposed to use.
Doc replied. He spoke the tongue fluently, as
he spoke many others.
"Our lot is not a bad one," Doc
replied in the language. He used the illiterate form of the tongue, as Adonis
might be expected to do.
"You have been with his highness
long?" John Sunlight asked.
"A long time," Doc replied
promptly.
He didn't know whether that was the correct
answer; there had been no time to check on all details of the prince's two
bodyguards.
"Where were you born?" John
Sunlight asked.
Doc immediately named a small mountain town
in the prince's native land.
"I have heard of the place," John
Sunlight said. Then he added, "Well, you will be out of the cold weather
before long. Your master will probably start back at dawn. I shall send you all
in one of my planes."
Although it seems as though Sunlight is
merely making small talk with King Carol’s two guards. In retrospect of what
happened later we can see that Sunlight was toying with Doc. His statement
“Well, you will be out of the cold weather before too long” takes on sinister
connotations.
Prior to his demonstration of the super
weapon for King Carol, Sunlight launched into a discussion about Doc Savage and
his Fortress. King Carol was bored with the lecture and wondered about its
revalence. Well, the revelance was that Sunlight knew Savage was present in
disguise and wanted Savage to know that he knew who he was. Later after Long
Tom, Renny and Fifi Jeeves were captured and brought to Sunlight’s
Like many of Doc’s villain’s John
Sunlight’s plans were too complex and unraveled rapidly when one thing went
wrong. Sunlight fled rather than fight.
Even Doc Savage believed that John
Sunlight is dead, or at least he wished it to be so.
John Sunlight makes his next, and only
other pulp novel, appearance in The Devil
Genghis which was published a few months after The Fortress of Solitude. Despite being the title character, John Sunlight
does not appear in much of The Devil
Genghis but acts behind the scenes. The book opens following the trail of
madmen. An Eskimo became insane when his clothes were stolen by a spirit. A
pilot became insane and his plane disappeared. A wealthy American living on the
After having escaped from the arctic John
Sunlight had established himself as a sort of modern day incarnation of Genghis
Khan in the area beyond
The setting for the section of The Devil Genghis where Doc Savage and
John Sunlight confront each other is I think, significant. It takes place in John Sunlight’s candlelit
bedroom.[25]
Doc Savage enters the bedroom and sees John Sunlight reclining on the bed. Doc
seizes John Sunlight’s head only to discover that he had been fooled by a wax
figure. John Sunlight’s voice tells Doc that the bed is one great shrapnel
shell and the wax figure was the triggering mechanism.
When Sunlight learned that it is Doc Savage
in his bedroom he reacted very strongly.
“John Sunlight fell back a
pace, and his hands--he wore blue gloves--jerked up as though to fend a blow.
He fell to trembling and biting his lips, then pulled a great sob of air into
his lungs and got control of himself.
The shaking of John
Sunlight's arms and legs continued, but it was joy now. Utter, unrestrainable
delight. So pleased he was that he tried several times to speak before he got
anything more than an incoherent gobble. “[26]
When Doc
Savage first caught sight of John Sunlight in The Devil Genghis he saw that John Sunlight still had his peculiar
habit of wearing clothes and accessories of all of one color, however his once
dark hair had become white.. Doc Savage was not certain whether John Sunlight’s
hair had turned white from his ordeal in the arctic or whether he had dyed it
as part of his affection since Sunlight had been wearing white at the time.
When Doc confronted Sunlight person to person, Sunlight was wearing a blue
turban.
However the
monochromatic color scheme and change in hair color were part of Sunlight’s
hidden, subliminal signals to Doc Savage as to whom Doc was really dealing
with. The monochromatic color scheme is something that John Sunlight carried
over from his Lily Bugov impersonation. However Doc Savage failed to comprehend
the rather subtle clue. So by this time Sunlight had colored his hair a
platinum blonde like Lily’s had been,
but Savage remained oblivious.
Doc stated that he knew Sunlight intended
to force him to teach him about the advanced weapons.
However Sunlight astonished Doc when he
tells him he never meant to force him. They both shared the same aims in life.
Sunlight explains how he plans to conquer the world and bring about a utopian
world under his totalitarian rule. He wanted Doc to aid him in this effort for
the sake of the world.
As we can see by the setting of the scene
this was a proposal in both definitions of the word. John Sunlight was not
merely offering Doc Savage to be his partner in the conquest of the world, he
was offering Doc the chance to be his consort.
Doc rejected this offer and kept the bed
exploding (I think the metaphor in that is quite obvious) and leapt for
Sunlight. Sunlight however had talked to Doc behind a partition of thick but invisible
glass. Doc was trapped in the room while Sunlight ran away. Once Doc was alone
he took cover and triggered the explosive on the bed so that the glass was
shattered.
Once he was free Doc proclaimed that the
false Genghis (Sunlight) had tried to kill the All Powerful.
Although Dent states that Sunlight fled
in terror, Sunlight knew that the thick glass would keep Savage at bay for a
few moments at least. Sunlight actually turned away in rage and humiliation. As
the two factions of Genghis supporters started to fight, Sunlight tried to flee
the mob. He was caught by the mob and butchered.
Or so it appeared.
Section II
Hell Hath No Fury
Although John Sunlight did not appear in
another pulp novel, he did come back once more in “The Monarch of Armageddon”
Millennium Comic’s sequel to The Devil Genghis.
A synopsis of The Monarch of Armageddon is as follows:
Shortly after being
attacked by the mob of Mongols who had believed him to be the reincarnation of
Genghis Khan, John Sunlight is rescued by the Lama Dorijieff and taken to a
lamasery in
In
Late Spring of 1938 Doc Savage and his men stop a dirigible from dropping a
bomb on
John
Sunlight meets with a representative of the Third Reich who berates Sunlight
for his inaccessibility. The dirigible operation had been Sunlight’s idea
although funded by the Third Reich. Herr Ganth is most upset when he learns
that John Sunlight had alerted Savage to the plan. Herr Ganth reveals that one
of the captured Bundists, Smith knows too much about Project Neu Menschlich.
When one of Sunlight’s men calls him Tsanyis Khan-Po Ganth is perplexed for
that was Dorijieff’s title. Sunlight reveals that Dorijieff has been killed and
he has assumed the title. Sunlight then commands Xauz to dispose of Ganth which
he does by snapping his neck. Sunlight then reveals his plan is the systematic
destruction of everything the man of bronze holds dear.
As
Doc leaves for his trip to
When
Doc arrives in
Chained
to a wall Doc Savage is dosed with a powerful hallucinogenic drug and taunted
by Princess Monja.
In
New York Monk and Ham attend the opening of Patricia Inc. Pat Savage’s spa. Pat
is under attack by a group of Tibetans in Western dress. They are about to
administer a potion in a hypodermic when Ham and Monk arrive. They drive off
her attackers. One of the Tibetans yells Tsanyis Khan-Po and poisons himself.
Monk takes the syringe to analyze the drug.
When
Doc Savage dies from his ordeal, a teary eyed Monja orders Doc thrown into the
pit. She tells her men she will inform the Thunderbolt. Doc has been playing
possum and overpowers his captors when the try to throw him in the pit.
Renny
went to the police station to talk to Smith. As Smith was being transferred a
group of mobsters use gas to capture him. They also captured Renny but threw
him out of the car. Breeze Castliglione is trying to find a cache of German
weapons for his own use.
On
Sunlight’s Yacht his Tibetan henchmen tell that they failed to capture Patricia
Savage due to the arrival of
Claiming
to be Herr Ganth, Xauz visits Helena Smith claiming that she might have
inherited some money if she could produce a necklace similar to the one he
produced. This was a pendant of green jewel set in the shape of a pyramid
framed by silver with a silver streak of lightning across the stone face. Xaux
is interrupted by one of Castligione’s men. As Xauz and the mobster fight,
Johnny and Long Tom arrive to speak with Helena Smith. Rather than fight all
three Xauz makes a strategic retreat.
Castliogine
interrogates Smith but only gets garbled phrases such as “The New Man is
intrepid and cruel” “Green Rock Thule.”
Doc
Savage finds King Chaac being held captive by Princess Monja. Chaac berates her
for having betrayed the man who preserved the Mayan way of life. Monja replies
that if it had not been for Savage they would not need protection. Sunlight had
made it so clear.
Savage
told Chaac and Monja he realized that Sunlight made them act in a drug induced
psychosis. Monja laughs at that. Sunlight only used words to persuade her to
turn against Doc Savage, the man who spurned her. She tells Doc that Sunlight
has allied himself with true supermen whose existence has been whispered for centuries.
Monja also claimed that Sunlight had removed his legacy of gold and laid waste
to his headquarters in
Monk,
Ham and Renny search for and locate Smith in an abandoned water tower. He has
been dead for days. They find a note book which they intend to look for
impressions. Monk tells them that the drug that the Tibetans tried to inject
into Pat was the same psychotropic Sunlight had used on Renny.
At
the office Johnny gives Long Tom, Pat and Helena Smith a lecture about
Renny,
Monk and Ham return to the office and find Johnny and Long Tom unconscious.
Once the two are awake they tell them that Sunlight took Pat and Helena Smith.
As the five leave to find Pat, they find that Doc has returned from
Sunlight
laments the fact that Savage is dead. He has a terse conversation with Pat who
curses and bites him. Xauz returns as Sunlight is about to kill Pat. Xauz said
that the Smith girl knew nothing important. Xauz wishes to leave for
Doc
Savage appears with his five companions. In hand to hand combat Xauz overpowers
Doc Savage who has been tortured and endured a non stop flight from
Savage
finds the Thunderbolt adrift. There isn’t any sign of Sunlight or his crew.
However there was the crew of a German submarine aboard, all of him died from
Prussiate compound. Doc finds a medallion on the Submarine captain’s body that
identifies him as a member of the
As
they get back underway Doc tell his men of myths around
Castiglione
spots Xauz and shoots him in the head for having killed his henchman. The
Fabulous Five aid the Thulians while Doc Savage goes after John Sunlight who
has fled. Sunlight and Doc fight on a stretch of barren rock over some ocean
side cliffs. Sunlight goes over the edge and catches hold of a stone wall.
However he would rather die than submit to being captured by Doc so he pushes away
from the cliff face and falls into the ocean. After the fight, the Thulians
burn their dead and call for the spirit of evil and darkness to descend upon
the outside world. Woten commands Doc and his men to go.
One of the more
interesting things about The Monarch of
Armageddon is that John Sunlight is depicted as having a scar that bisects
his eye. A scar much like the one that Lily Bugov would have had once her
injury had healed. Sunlight is not depicted as having such a scar in either The Fortress of Solitude or The Devil Genghis.
“The Monarch of
Armageddon” takes places shortly after the events of The Devil Genghis. At the end of The Devil Genghis John Sunlight is attacked and apparently
dismembered his disillusioned Mongolian warriors. “That cry got started somehow, and spread,
and there was not enough of John Sunlight's body in that one place for all the
swords to find it; so that suddenly it was in a dozen sections all over the
flying field, where it was available to more swords.” However in “The Monarch
of Armageddon” it is revealed in the confusion Sunlight pushed another person
in front of him while he fled.
We are to think then that
this scar was the result of the injuries that he incurred while being attacked
by his men. Yet given the speculation that Ivan Zarov was both Lily Bugov and
Ivan Zarya aka John Sunlight this scar takes on some importance.
Yet where did the scar go
between the end of Escape From Loki and the end of The Devil Genhis. Certainly Dent would have mentioned such a striking
disfigurement. We know despite the Baron’s efforts to get his favorite inducted
into the fellowship of the Nine, this did not happen. So the disappearance of
the scars probably did not come about from the regenerative properties of the
elixir. If they, the question then arises why did the come back? If indeed the
scars had healed, perhaps Sunlight performed an act of self mutilation as a
response to being scorned by Doc Savage.
There is the possibility
that the scars had not healed at all. Sunlight may have covered the noticeable
and disfiguring scar with flesh covered latex pieces. People would tend to
notice the scar more than the face, a bit of misdirection that he had learned
from his false bosom. These latex pieces may have been ripped off in the fight
or Sunlight may have deliberately removed them to disguise himself. The most
likely explanation is that Sunlight had plastic surgery to cover the scars and
during the fighting with the Mongols the thin layer of skin grafted over the
scars broke revealing the seam underneath.
He used this scar as a
personal symbol of his being scorned not merely once by Savage but thrice. The
brutal and methodical way in which Sunlight sought vengeance against Savage and
all he holds dear, brings to mind more the burning hatred of a lover scorned
rather than the cool calculating plot of a villain’s whose plans had been
upset.
During this period he
made no attempt to hide the scar. This I believe hearkens to the earlier
speculation that he deliberately revealed his scar to change his appearance. He
did this to hide the identity of the man behind the destruction of Savage’s
life would be a surprise to Savage. Yet the scar should have been the most
telling clue of them all.
As the synopsis of The Monarch of Armageddon demonstrates
John Sunlight took a particular delight in going after the women in Doc
Savage’s life. Having learned of Doc’s affection for Monja, he turned her
against Doc Savage and against her own family. He probably took a particular
delight in having her torture and think that she was the cause of Savage’s
death.
Sunlight also showed
great determination in capturing Pat Savage. Baron Karl may have told John
Sunlight about the rumors swirling about Doc Savage and his cousin.[27]
When Pat eluded capture one the first attempt Sunlight put more effort in
capturing her. After she was in his custody, Sunlight was given the news that
Savage had died from a bad reaction to his psychotropic drug. Since he had no
further use for her, he was going to eliminate her. Although Sunlight showed
more willingness to kill men in this story, he continued to have no compunction
about killing women. Helena Smith for example was tortured and killed without a
thought.
We should also discuss
John Sunlight and his relationship to Xauz. According to The Monarch of
Armageddon Xauz was from Ultima Thule in the far north.
When the tale takes us to
Ultima Thule where we learn that the Thulians spoke a proto-german and that
they had access to high technology. Their leader is Wothenjaz and it is
strongly implied that the Thulians were immortals who inspired the legends of
the Aesir, with Wothenjaz being Wothan or Odin. According to Philip Jose
Farmer’s novels A Feast Unknown, Lord of the Trees and The Mad
Goblin, the leader of the Nine was named XauXaz was an elderly one-eyed man
who was also known as Odin.[28]
Now granted the story of the Ultima Thule as depicted in The Monarch
of Armageddon may very well be literally true, however much of the story
may also be reconstructed exaggeration. Ultima Thule may have been the remnants
of an ancient civilization populated by Nordic immortals, possibly even some
Lemurian or Atlantean connections. I suspect that Ultima Thule was a hidden
sanctuary of the Nine, one which they discovered and conquered. The Thulians
were the immediate family of XauXaz and his descendents who preserved their
original culture in isolation. It may have also been one of the manufacturing
areas for the elixir. The high technology was already in place and they could
only operate the machinery not duplicate it. Ultima Thule suffered great and
probably irreparable damage during the fight between the Thulians and
Castligione’s gangsters.
In A Feast Unknown it was
revealed that XauXaz was most probably the grandfather of Lord Grandrith and
Doc Caliban, the Nine’s Tarzan and Doc Savage doppelgangers. The man Xauz could
have been another grandson of XauXaz. John Sunlight would have been immediately
attracted to him, not simply because of his resemblance to Doc Savage but also
because Xauz presented a challenge to him. Since Xauz hated him on sight it
gave Sunlight the perfect opportunity to break him, dominate him and put him
under his power.
Having worked for the Nine and from his contact with Baron Karl,
Sunlight probably realized Xauz was related to the Nine. Since Sunlight had
been denied the chance to receive the elixir, Sunlight may have thought Xauz
was his ticket in doing so. He may have learned from Xauz that the Nine were
ambivalent about Doc Savage. He often wrecked their plans yet they were
reluctant to deal with him because of their religious beliefs. Sunlight
believed that if he succeeded in his mission of vengeance and destroyed Savage
and his organization, he could prove his worth to the Nine, for it would free
them from the chains of their theology. Sunlight may have also thought that he
could use the technological marvels in Ultima Thule to his own advantage.
Like Castiglione he was attracted to Ultima Thule by the promise of
treasures that did not exist.
One of the main plot points of The
Monarch of Armageddon was Xauz’s proposed plan to ally the
During the melee fight between the American gangsters, the Thulians and
Doc’s men John Sunlight took the opportunity to flee. Doc Savage went in
pursuit. John Sunlight jumped over an ocean swept cliff rather than submit to
being captured by Doc Savage. The final humiliation was perhaps after all he
had done to Savage, after all the clues that Sunlight had given him, Savage
still had not twigged as to whom John Sunlight truly was.
John Sunlight clung to a cliff face high over the ocean. Rather than be rescued by Doc Savage John Sunlight released his grip and plummeted into the ocean.
This is the last we have
we saw of John Sunlight… under that name anyway.
Part III
Loki Reborn
Or
The Green Hair Has It
This section of our
article may very well be the most controversial of them all, even more so than
speculating that John Sunlight was a cross dressing homosexual with a love/hate
fixation with Doc Savage. As we have discussed Ivan Zarov in his personas of
Lily Bugov or Ivan Zarya, a.k.a. John Sunlight embodied the trickster.
Frequently the Trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability, changing gender roles and engaging
in same-sex
practices. The Trickster brings
knowledge and wisdom to humanity and to epic heroes by challenging their
intellect and prowess through tests and tricks. Loki, the Norse trickster, also
exhibits gender variability, in one case even becoming pregnant; interestingly,
he shares the ability to change genders with Odin, the chief Norse deity who also possesses many
characteristics of the Trickster. The Trickster motif as well as the odd
friendship between Odin and Loki can be seen in Escape From Loki through the
relationship between Baron Karl and Lily. Lily symbolizes the gender
transformed Loki whereas the monocled Baron symbolizes Odin as a trickster.
They both test and challenge the young epic hero Doc Savage.
The son of a giantess,
Loki was a small giant but a tall man.
Loki is often depicted as a tall, dark haired man.[29]
As in most often seen in the Marvel Comic’s version of him. One need not be
reminded that in The Fortress of Solitude that Sunlight was a depicted as a
tall, dark haired man. He personified the Trickster who both tested and tried
to destroy the Hero. As we have shown the events of The Fortress of Solitude could be seen as a series of tests put
forth by John Sunlight to Doc Savage.
A year after Doc Savage
saw John Sunlight fall into the ocean depths, there appeared in
After Doc Savage and his
men had left Ultima Thule the Thulians were surprised but not entirely shocked
when the drenched and bloody form of John Sunlight stumbled into the remnants
of their sanctuary. They would have killed him outright had Sunlight not been
one of their servants. XauXaz was also interested in Sunlight because he
combined aspects of both Wotan and Loki in one person.
Sunlight’s scarred eye
bothered XauXaz as did the fact that Sunlight was responsible, in part, for the
death of Xauz. XauXaz decided that Sunlight represented a sign that events were
recycling. Sunlight’s leap into the ocean after the death of Xauz, replicated
Loki’s transformation into a salmon and leaping into the ocean to escape after
the death of Balder.
Loki had been chained to
a rock so that a serpent’s acidic venom would drip upon him, torturing him for
all eternity. Sunlight’s punishment was more modern, He was strapped down to a
table while his injuries were fixed without the benefit of anesthetic. Minute
amounts of the elixir were given to him but only to keep him alive. Although
the elixir kept him alive and aided his recuperation the minute amount did not
undue the severe damage that a full dose of the elixir would have done. The
fall on the rocks had severely damaged Sunlight’s face and had given him severe
head trauma. In layman’s terms the rocks had made an omelet out his already
scrambled brains. Sunlight’s mouth had been ripped open on the rocks giving him
the equivalent the injury given to Gwynplaine or what is colloquially called a
Glasgow Smile.[30]
When healed his pulverized cheekbones, ripped cheek muscles and torn lips
formed a permanent rictus. In addition to the scars around his lips other scars
marred his face. Although XauXaz ordered the scar bisecting Sunlight’s eye to
be removed, seeing this mark as one that could be used to promote Sunlight as a
possible rival to XauXaz.
Sunlight lost most of his
personal memories, he knew he was named John, had a love hate/love relationship
with a man in
He highlighted his rictus
by wearing bright red lipstick. This may have also satisfied, in part, his
desire for transvestitism. He covered his facial scars with thick, white clown
make up. Rather than go with the traditional red hair color of the clown
however, John chose to color his hair green and to make it semi-permanent he
dosed himself with high levels of copper. The copper toxicity also contributed
to his madness. He chose the green color because as the Fool he signaled a new
beginning a new birth. The god Dionysus was the god of reborn god of fertility
who wore ivy in his hair. He left a trail of madness in his wake. This was
echoed in the legends of the Wild Hunt who ferocity gathered followers as it
went along. The leader of the wild hunt was often called Herla Cynig or
Hellequin, and was often believed to be an avatar of Odin in his trickster or
god of war aspect. Herla Cynig evolved into Harlequin, the mischievous and
cruel clown. Rather than adopt Harlequin’s piebald look he went with a solid
purple color scheme. This hearkened back to his forgotten days as Lily Bugov
and memory flickers of John Sunlight. Purple was the regal color and John was
the reborn king of comedy and the king of terror. In his eyes, these were the
same thing.
John had been taken to a
sanitarium owned by the Nine and run by Doc Caliban in
John adopted the name of Jack Napier. Jack is of
course another name for John. Napier derives from an old French world meaning
Keeper of Linen. Linen was often used as a cloth as a second layer of clothing.
The word linen derives from the old English lin which means made of flax. Flax
derives from the Norse word for flay. So then we have John who has been divided
into two layers, possibly by the act of flaying. Flayed alive, John had been
driven into a permanent schizophrenic state.
Jack Napier also adopted the nome de guerre of The
Joker. [31]
Although this derivation may not be quite as odd as it sounds. There is an Alsatian
cardgame called juckerspiel which name derives from the fact that its two top
trumps are Jucker,
meaning “jack.” The word Jucker may also have influenced the choice of the term
joker
for the extra card introduced into American euchre in the 1860s to act as the
“best bower,” or topmost trump; bower
is derived from the German bauer. Of course Farmerians know of a person who
used the name Bauer who was something of a trickster.
The Joker can be an extremely beneficial, or an
extremely harmful, card. In Euchre it is often used to represent Benny, the highest
trump. In poker, it is wild. However, in the children's game Old
Maid, a solitary joker represents the
Maid, a card that is to be avoided. That the Joker represents the maid hearkens
back to John’s inner conflict of being either a homosexual or a woman in a
man’s body.[32]
In 1935 a criminal named The Joker had dressed up
like a clown and terrorized
The Joker acquired a potent poison from a chemical
researcher named Veetor. Veetor had been one of three men who had worked for
the Millcote Chemical Corporation and struck out on their own.[33]
They had a falling out and Veetor was ruined. The Joker encouraged Veetor to test
his concoction on his two former partners. This chemical compound caused a
person to die laughing with a rictus frozen on their faces.[34]
It later became known as Joker venom.
In July of 1939, The Joker began his first foray of
terror. Perhaps because of a glittering blue dome which haunted his memories,
the Joker had a lust for rare and exotic gems. He combined his passion for gems
with his first joke against
In a case that Lester Dent’s unpublished notes
called The Men Who Smiled Forever the
Joker faced off against Doc Savage.[35]
A few of my readers are saying Whoa!!. The Joker
faced off against Batman as depicted in Batman Volume 1, Number 1. Not so. This
tale, like many other early Batman stories, portrayed events that actually
involved Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, the Avenger or some other
In his opening move, the Joker intended to sow
discord and pay tribute to his mythological roots by killing nine men in
bizarre and darkly humorous ways.
Announcing his intentions over the radio, the Joker states that he
would kill the industrialist Henry Claridge and steal the Claridge diamond.
Despite massive police protection Claridge died laughing uncontrollably and
with his face frozen into a rictus. The Claridge diamond was discovered to have
already been replaced by a duplicate under which lie a joker playing card.
A few days later the
Joker broke on another radio broadcast and claimed he would kill Jay Wilde and
steal the Ronkers Ruby. Again despite police protection Wilde died. A poison
dart hit him in the neck and a gas knocked out the police protection. Joker had
been in the house hiding in a suit of armor.
Although normally Doc
Savage did not bother with basic criminal activity but Wilde was a distant
relative of his and Patricia’s. In addition to having Doc Savage on his trail,
the Joker also had a crime boss named Brute Nelson after him. Nelson had wanted
to steal the two gems. He put a murder contract out on the Joker. The Joker
visited Nelson’s house just as Doc Savage arrived to question Nelson. Thinking
Savage was there to arrest them Nelson’s men attacked him. As Nelson’s men
detained Doc, The Joker killed Nelson.
The Joker fled in a car but Doc jumped on the car’s running board. Joker
tried to dislodge Doc and lost control of the car which crashed on a bridge.
The Joker knocked the half conscious Doc Savage off of the bridge..
Joker once again broke
into the radio broadcast claiming that he would kill Judge Drake at ten for
having sent him to prison before.[36] Nervous about the threat Judge Drake paced
back and forth in his study. His friend the Chief of police persuaded him to
play cards to calm down. As he dealt the cards Drake began to laugh
uncontrollably and died laughing, a rictus frozen upon his face. The cards had
razor edges daubed with poison. As Doc Savage examined Drake, the Police Chief
slipped away.
Curious at the Police
Chief’s sudden departure Long Tom followed the police chief as he left the
Judge’s house. The police chief traveled to an old deserted house. Long Tom was
detected entering the house and knocked out from behind. The Chief of Police
was the Joker in disguise. Doc Savage arrived just as Joker finished trussing
Long Tom up in a chair. Doc Savage fought The Joker and found him to be
freakishly strong. Knowing he would lose a direct fight the Joker knocked over
his chemical apparatus and started a fire. The Joker escaped while Doc rescued
Long Tom from the fire. Long Tom told Doc that Joker had boasted about stealing
the Cleopatra necklace next. This necklace was owned by Otto Drexler who lived
in a Penthouse in one of the city’s tallest buildings. Doc and Monk staked out
the building. When Doc stopped the Joker
from entering the Penthouse the Joker shot Doc Savage and was puzzled that his
bullets have no effect. The Joker leapt off of the balcony and Monk dove after
him in pursuit. After a fight among some skyscrapers Monk knocked the Joker off
of the building and onto some building scaffolding for a structure that was
being built next door. In a scene oddly reminiscent of his previous encounter
with Doc Savage the Joker hung off of a precipice and Doc Savage reached for
him. [37]
This time however when the Joker let go, Doc Savage was quick enough to pull
him up.
Taking a page from Doc
Savage’s playbook, the Joker soon escaped from jail by pulling out a false
tooth.[38]
This tooth contained an explosive that blew a hole in the all of this cell.
After escaping from jail, the Joker took refuge in a factory closed by the
depression.[39]
Keeping close to his
plan, the Joker. The Joker broadcast a threat to the actual Chief of Police. The
police chief is called to the phone. A loud sound erupts from the receiver,
sending a venom coated dart into the Chief’s ear. Despite how implausible it
sounds this was actually how the Joker killed this person, although it was not
the Chief of Police, it was the Chief of Detectives. The Joker was either able
to slip into Police headquarters in disguise or he had set this up trap even
before he had started his crime spree.
A famous painting is stolen and a joker card
left in its place.
A gem is stolen and a joker card left in its
place. In both cases the owners of the stolen items were found with the
Grinning Death
Over the radio the
Joker threatened to break into the Drake museum and steal the Cleopatra
necklace.[40]
Stepping out of a mummy case the Joker gassed the police contingent. As he
stole the gem Doc Savage arrived. The Joker was immune to his own gas and in
fight Doc Savage succumbs to the gas fumes. The Joker intended to finish him
off as one of his sacrifices but police reinforcements arrived in gas masks.
The Joker fled.
A reformer named Edgar
Martin cried out for the capture of the Joker. Incensed the Joker threatened
Martin’s life. Martin was protected by the police but he began playing
solitaire to calm his nerves. Although the cards in the room had previously
been checked Martin discovered,. to his dismay, the cards were all jokers with
sharp edges that cut his fingers. He perished of the Grinning Death.
Doc Savage and the
Police Commissioner concocted a story to trap the Joker, luring him to steal
the Fire Ruby.
Although the Joker
suspected that the news story may be a trap he is determined to steal the ruby.
He broadcast his intentions. When he
arrived at the house where the Ruby was kept, he was greeted by gas mask
wearing police officers. He gunned his way out. Monk Mayfair chased him across
the roof tops but the Joker laid in wait and Joker knocked him off a roof. A
handy flag pole saved the life of the ape-like chemist. On the street The Joker
confronted Doc Savage boasting he will shoot Doc in the head. Monk dropped onto
the Joker from his flagpole perch. Doc
wrestled with the Joker who drew out a venom coated knife which proved useless
against Doc’s armor. Since it is near
Months after these events, Doc Savage learned that
the Joker is still alive. Doc intends to have him released and take him to the
Through the use of a poisoned needle planted in a
shoe, the Joker killed E. S. Arthur the owner of the Pharaoh Jewels. When the
Joker went to retrieve the jewels, he found the famed jewel thief The Cat-Woman
stealing the jewels.[42]
Robin who had been trailing the Cat-Woman
attempted to capture the Joker. To save Robin’s life, the Cat-Woman freely
offered the Joker the Pharaoh Jewels. The Joker and Batman engaged in a sword duel.
Batman was knocked off the balcony but latched onto a vine. Cat-Woman and Robin have barricaded themselves in the library
but the Joker set the heavy oaken doors afire. Batman arrived and fought with
the Joker, knocking him unconscious. He starts Robin and Cat-Woman up the ladder to the hovering Batplane. Cat-Woman jumped off the ladder into a lake. Joker was left
in the burning building.[43]
The Joker escaped the
fire with the Pharaoh Jewels. He had three more objects to steal. Returning to
his original modos operandi, he announced on the radio that he will be stealing
the Staff of Seti I from the home of Walter Emerson, a noted Egyptologist. The
Joker released Joker venom in gaseous form in the house of Emerson. Savage and
his men had staked the house out and escaped the gas by using masks. Savage’s
unnaturally keen nose had tipped him when the gas was released. The gas however
was a feint as Doc and two of his men checked the source. Joker slipped into
the room where the staff was being guarded and shot Peabody and Renny with a
dart gun. The darts had a slow acting version of the joker venom and Joker
challenged Doc to find a cure. Joker escaped with the staff.
The Joker next
announced he was going to steal the Scarab Ring of King Tut from noted Yale
Egyptologist William Omaha McElroy.
Despite precautions taken by Doc Savage, the Joker in disguise rigged Professor
McElroy’s lectern microphone so that it would release a dose of the gas into
his classroom. While Doc and his crew were busy saving the students, the Joker
kidnapped the giggling McElroy. While enroute to his home McElroy revealed that
the ring in his safe was a duplicate, he always carried the real one on him.
Joker stole this from McElroy, coshed him and shoved him out of the car they
were using. Although Doc Savage was able to save McElroy’s life, the
combination of the blow to the head and the joker venom would cause a unique
brain damage that would manifest in periodic bouts of mania in which McElroy
believed he was the reincarnation of King Tutankhamun. However these did not manifest until the 1950’s, after Doc
Savage’s disappearance so he could not have helped McElroy.
The Joker’s final act in
this particular series of crimes took place on New Year’s Eve 1939. He
announced over the radio that he would bring in the New Year with a bang that
would leave the entire city laughing in the final moments of the year and the
final moments of their lives. Doc Savage and his men discovered that several
New Year’s baby displays had been set up in various areas of the city without
authorization from the city. Aided by the Batman and Robin, and other
vigilantes present in
Doc Savage realized that
this was another feint and took his crew to the New York Museum of Natural
History where a gala ball was being held. While Doc’s men located the hidden
joker bomb at the ball, Doc Savage made his way to the Egyptian wing and
prevented the Joker from stealing the golden statue of Harpocrates. Harpocrates was a depiction of the God Horus as
a child, representing the new born sun and new born year. All the Egyptian
objects that the Joker had stolen were connected to Horus either by being
affiliated with Horus, his wife Isis or his brother Set.
Harpocrates was also seen as the symbol of the 0
card in some Tarot cards, although the most common depiction was that of the
Fool.
Laughing the Joker allowed himself to be captured.[44]
The Joker was taken to the
A much distorted version of The Symbolic Jester appeared in Batman 159, “The Great
Clayface-Joker Feud”, November 1963. As with all the other Doc Savage derived
Batman stories DC comics based their account on newspaper accounts rather than
the actual notes of Doc Savage as transcribed by Lester Dent. The Terror Clown
also was turned into Batman comics, although bits of the adventure made it
piecemeal into three different Batman Comics, “The Cross Country Crimes”
(Batman 8, December 1941-January 1942), “The Case of the 48 Jokers” (Batman 55,
October-November 1949) and the "The Joker Jury" (Batman 163, May 1964)
The Joker continued to plague Doc Savage through
the early forties, although as Doc spent more and more of his time away from
In late 1943, the Joker became involved in a scheme
promoted by Baron Karl, whom the Joker, without knowing why remembered with
some fondness. Using a proxy the Joker became involved in stealing the plans of
the planned atomic bomb. Captain
The shock of being sent to
In any event Ivan escaped by posing as a woman. In
early 1944, the Countess Lily Bugov once more appeared on the scene. She donned
an eye patch as a signal to Doc Savage and as a challenge to the Nine. There
are rumors she sponsored an auction to steal one of the never recovered weapons
from Doc Savage’s Fortress but her efforts were foiled by one of the
The fun loving non-lethal Joker of the late
forties, fifties and early sixties does seem to be a different character than
the earliest version. Possibly it was a copycat or a trained replacement.[50]
The Joker may have also tailored his modos operandi and personality to better
play against this opponent.
The return of the psychotic killer returned to
comics in 1973. However as demonstrated in several articles comic book time is
not real time so this return probably happened much earlier, possibly as early
as 1963 or 1964 when the public soon realized that there was a new Batman.
Although also interesting to note that the depiction a psychotic female hating
Joker resurfaced in the 1980s after the reappearance of Doc Savage, with The Killing Joke being published after
the public reappearance of Doc Savage[51] However as pointed out in the Batman article
by Dennis Power the events of The Killing
Joke actually take place much earlier.
One of the dichotomy’s of the Joker’s personality
is while he wanted to defeat and unmask the Batman, or in psychosexual terms
conquer him and strip his naked when he often had the chance to do so, he
balked. Often he claimed that ultimately he did not want to want to know who
was under the mask because it would have taken away all the mystery and fun.
However it may have been that like many Don Juans he preferred the chase to the
actual consummation which was always disappointing. If our earlier speculations
are correct perhaps he still had lingering psychological problems that
prevented him from actually consummating his relationships and so sublimated
his need for climax through domination and murder.
Another reason was because he had formed an
emotional connection with this mysterious dark figure and did not really want
to know the person beneath the mask. Although he may have intellectually
realized that the second Batman was Robin grown up, he emotionally ignored that
fact because he wanted to fantasize that it was the same man wrestling with
him, physically as well as metaphorically.
The Joker especially disliked Robin and he also
hated Batgirl. These feelings most likely arose out feelings of jealousy. The
Joker regarded the partnership of Batman and Robin, and of Batman and Batgirl
to be threats to his one on one connection with the Batman. When the Joker
accidentally learned the identity of the second Batman, he realized that the
connection between Batgirl and Batman was more than just a crime fighting
partnership. Infuriated he set out to destroy their lives and enacted The Killing Joke which left Barbara
Gordon/Grayson[52]
paralyzed. When the third Batman acquired yet another Robin, the Joker felt
obligated to torture and destroy him as well. [53]
Jealousy may have been the primary motive for the
brief return of John Sunlight. Shortly after the reappearance of Doc Savage, it
was announced that Doc Savage had been reunited with his estranged wife Monja
only to have her die in a South American jungle. Stunned by this new the Joker
went into a state of fugue and wandered about
Grasp, a former member of the Weather Underground
recognized the wandering amnesiac as a dead ringer for John Sunlight, who had
become something of a legend to terrorist organizations in the world. He had a
desperate, lunatic plan to use him as a figurehead to rally various terrorist
organizations. Among those he contacted were former members of the Red Brigade,
Baader-Mehnoff gang, Red Army Faction
and Action Directe who had forsaken their revolutionary backgrounds and become
corporate leaders. He blackmailed them into cooperating and funding his
operation. He concocted a story that wherever and however Doc Savage had been
Sunlight had been with him and they had both returned as young as when they had
disappeared. Recounting the story of how Sunlight had stolen and secreted
weapons from Savage’s secret hideout, Grasp claimed that Sunlight would lead
them to a secret cache.
Grasp was pleased that his Sunlight stand in
warmed to the part to the extent that he seemed to believe it. Grasp and his
partners, Anders Holstrom and Merete Lundquist however fall under the charm and
hypnotic charisma of “John Sunlight”. He slowly acquired the leadership role by
playing all three of the partners against each other. Sunlight’s memories
slowly return to him and Grasp realized that this was the true John Sunlight.
He then tried to accelerate Sunlight’s memories by giving him the published
accounts of Sunlight’s two encounters with Doc Savage. Sunlight quickly
devoured all the rest of the novels that he could locate.
Identifying Long Tom as the weakest link among
Savage’s companions, Sunlight directed a raid against Long Tom’s apartment that
gained them access to Savage’s computer network. When Sunlight learned what
Savage is working on he was infuriated but did not take direct action against
Savage. He waited for Savage to travel to his Fortress of Solitude, knowing
that Savage had undoubtedly moved it after Sunlight had discovered it. They had
planted a homing device on Long Tom Roberts and were delighted when it started
north.
Sunlight and his men raided the Fortress once Savage
and his crew were inside. The sneak attack was successful and they locked
Savage and his crew away while they ransacked the Fortress. Grasp and the others wanted to kill Savage to
make an example of him before the world but Sunlight wanted to convert Savage
to his cause. As Sunlight and his cronies were stealing material Doc escaped
from his cell. Sunlight and the others were able to leave with a couple of the
devises by taking the body of Monja as hostage. Doc had taken it to the
Fortress so that he could revive Monja as he had the Pharoah Pey-deh-eh-ghan.
They were only able to figure out the use of two
of the devices that they had stolen from Savage. Sunlight made a deal with
Saddam Hussein to launch a rocket into orbit that would have one of Doc’s
devices as the payload. Sunlight kept Monja’s body because he knew that if
nothing else would lure Savage to him. Sunlight was wisely out of
Once in orbit Doc’s machine was deployed. Doc had
created an energy screen keep out radiation, in the event of a nuclear war or
nuclear accident, John Sunlight realized that this could be used a weapon. He
used the device for extortion, informing the United Nations that unless they
met his demands he would bring darkness to the world. He demonstrated his power
by knocking out the power grid in
Doc Savage persuaded the United Nations to accede
to Sunlight’s demand that he be turned over to him. Doc Savage was “captured”
and dropped off at a neutral location before being taken to Sunlight’s
headquarters. It came as no surprise to Doc that Sunlight had made his
headquarters in Doc Savage’s abandoned Fortress of Solitude. He was made to
enter the structure naked and was then thoroughly examined for a planted
tracking device or anything that could help him escape. During the thorough
examination it was discovered that the bronze skin coloration was artificial.
It was not Doc Savage but his associate Beau Faulkner impersonating Savage.[55]
Doc had entered the Fortress disguised as the
guard accompanying Doc Savage. When Sunlight realized the mistake he sent
guards after Savage, after giving the mercenaries sufficient time to capture
Savage Sunlight and Merete Lundquist made their way to where Savage had been
spotted. They followed a trail of unconscious mercenaries and found Doc Savage
ripping apart the last component of the machine that created the electronic
screen. He had also uploaded a computer virus that infiltrated the computer
system that Sunlight had installed.
Gun in hand he motioned Doc out into the corridor
and held him at gunpoint while Merete looked over the machinery.
Nonplussed, John Sunlight told Doc Savage how had
confidence that Savage could rebuild the device. He launched into his spiel
designed to convince Doc to join him in ruling the world. Merete Lundquist
watched Sunlight with growing dismay and anger. She realized that Sunlight did
not have as firm a grip on reality as she had been led to believe. She also
realized from watching how Sunlight reacted to Savage and the almost purring,
cajoling voice he used that Sunlight was playing for the other team, despite
his overt displays of affection for her. Sunlight had used her and in doing so
had ruined her career and her life.
When Doc Savage once again refused to have
anything to do with Sunlight he grew petulant. Doc Savage counter offered to
cure John of all of his aberrant behavior.[56] Doc Savage’s statement, his absolute
rejection of all that was John Sunlight caused a mental melt down in John
Sunlight and he began laughing in the chilling, mirthless laughter of the
Joker. Sunlight had rigged the Fortress with explosives and triggered the self
destruct mechanism. Merete attacked Sunlight and was shot twice in the stomach.
As Doc moved towards the control room Sunlight laughed even harder.
“Although this is not quite how I pictured our
relationship consummating, you, I, your wife and dear little Merete here will
join in a ménage à quatre ending in an explosive climax.” Sunlight revealed
that bombs had been placed on Monja’s cryogenic chamber. Merete realized that
Sunlight wished to lure Doc into the control room so that they would all be
immolated together and she lurched across the control panel hitting the button
that sealed the control room and a steel shutter covered the door. It is not
known if she did this as one last act of goodness to save Doc’s life or whether
she merely wished to thwart Sunlight of his revenged.[57]
Doc was unable to see what happened in the control room but he heard gunshots
and screams. He tried to open the door but was knocked off of his feet when a
blast rocked the control room. Other blasts sounded throughout the Fortress,
Doc chose to try and get as many of Sunlight’s men as he could out of the
Fortress as it exploded.
Days later Doc explored the ruins of the Fortress,
he found the remains of Monja’s cryogenic chamber. Fragments of Monja and
Merete’s body were found and a few tissue samples from a male body. It appeared
that Sunlight had very close to the explosive when it detonated and was blown
to bits. Doc Savage was not so certain Sunlight or the Joker was truly gone.
Sunlight at least never made another appearance,
two months after the Sunlight Rising incident, Doc Savage once again
disappeared and has yet to reappear.[58]
After Doc Savage’s second disappearance, the Joker
once again surfaced. The Joker used a modification of his joker venom that
turned people into versions of himself.[59]
These carried out acts of violence, murder and terrorism on a world wide basis
until the Joker was finally captured on his base on
Yet… he surfaced once more a year or so later.
Was the Joker who attempted to have one last laugh
really John Sunlight or was it merely an imposter? Was Sunlight already dead, was
this truly his end or is he still out there, waiting for the right hand to
play?
[1] Novelist Aaron Allston had modified this theory a bit in his two Doc Savage pastiche’s Doc Sidhe in which Doc Sidhe’s archenemy is his son by the Princess Monja counterpart. Admittedly Sunlight does possess anomalous strength and speed. His intelligence is also supposed to be on the genius level. However it should be remembered that many of the people related to Sir William Clayton also possess these same qualities such as Richard Benson, Tarzan, James Henry, etc. And we agree with Eckert that John Sunlight was descended from Sir William Clayton.
[2] This theory is discussed in Lai’s A Brief Biography of Dr. Caber (ed.)
[3] These immortal words were spoken by MOD agent Austin Powers as depicted in “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery”
[4] For more information on this remarkable invention please see Inventing Beauty by Ann Riordan, Broadway, 2005
[5] The report of Lily’s injury sounds suspiciously like what had happened to Anna Vyrubova in 1915. Vyrubova was the best friend and lady in waiting to Alexandra the Tsarina. An early disciple of Rasputin, Vyrubova is, according to some accounts the person who introduced Rasputin to the Imperial family. In fact Vyrubova was supposedly dying from her injuries and it was Rasputin healing prayers that saved her life, although she remained paralyzed from the waist. The similarity of Vyrubova’s story to Lily’s purported fate plus Vyrubova’s connection to Rasputin casts some doubt on its authenticity.
[6]
Sprinkled through the Doc Savage are a few asides the may point to Doc’s latent
homosexuality. In Quest of the Spider Monk states "For the woman isn't
made who can get a rise out of Doc." And in Resurrection Day Monk says,
“Doc ain't never gone for the fems,”
Granted this may not be due to homosexual or bisexual feelings but
rather Doc innate shyness with women having arisen first from his lack of
female role models and or companions in his childhood and youth and then
exacerbated by his first sexual experience being with a man disguised as a
woman. A psychosexual conflict probably arose because he had enjoyed the
experience and because he felt most comfortable in the company of men rather
than men. To him women were almost alien creatures. That Doc did eventually
have at least three sexual relationships with women with marriage to two of
them may point to that he was not
homosexual by nature. Although a heterosexual marriage, especially in the
pre-sexual revolution era does not necessarily preclude homosexuality.. His
relationship with Louise Ducharme as related Doc Ardan: City of
In
Philip Jose Farmer’s A Feast Unknown and
The Mad Goblin explicitly states that
the relationship between Doc Caliban and Pat Wilde was romantic and sexual in
nature. Even if Caliban and Savage were two different people, it does not
preclude the idea that Doc Savage and Pat Savage may have had a similar
relationship. Even if Doc Savage and Patricia Savage only had a romantic but
non-sexual relationship to the American readers this would have been shocking
because of the uniquely American taboo on cousin relationships. It should be
remembered that until the very late nineteenth century marriage and
relationships between first cousins were as prevalent in the
Whether or not Pat and Doc did have a relationship it did not evolve into marriage, possibly both realized that they were too much alike to be fully committed to one another.
[7] In what also may be a bit of foreshadowing although
more obliquely. Prior to being captured by Baron Von Hessel Clark Savage jr.
discovers a secret sanctorum in a Chateau which had been used for satanic rites.
Crawling among the bones of the sacrificial bones is a worm unknown to science.
The worm unknown to science and coupled with the depiction of satanic rites is
also interesting. Sexual perversion was often an instrumental act in the rites
of satanic cults. The worm crawling among the bones of the sacrificial victims
could be a foreshadowing of
[8]
Rasputin was considered the leader of a pro-German contingent in the
[9] The sexual connotations of Hump, Larsen’s nickname for Van Weyden should not be overlooked.
[10] It still remains unknown how he learned of their existence.
[11] Although in A Feast Unknown the Nine, or at least Anana makes the claim that the Nine encourage their servants to seek other avenues of longevity, in reality they had a monopoly wanted to keep it. Then again Larsen may have been mistaken that the Nine knew the full extent of his experimentation. It is quite possible that his sponsor Iwaldi stole Larsen’s samples and notes and these formed the basis for the rejuvenation formula that Iwaldi began to use in the mid- 1960s.
[12] Why Karl Moriarty chose this name and its
hidden meanings will be revealed in an article by my colleague Dennis Power
entitled The Sons of No One. (ed).
[13] Although many accounts state that the name Rasputin means debauched or
[14] Starr, “A Submersible Subterfuge, Farmer The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, Lai The Secret History of Captain Nemo. (ed.)
[15]
See The Other Log of Phileas Fogg for
details. The other Nautilus limped back to its submarine pen in
[16] While it seems unlikely that she was one of the Servants of the Nine who had received the Elixir, she may have been a servant of the Nine due to religious or hereditary ties. Grigori Rasputin may have had a closer tie to the Nine than he had ever known, having been one of their descendents.
[17] From out modern perspective it is easy to recognize the metallic lines as printed circuitry. However for a man of the Victorian age this was an astounding feat of genius.
[18] See Thunderball, On Her Majesties’ Secret Service and You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming (ed.)
[19] Although there are a plethora of sources on the murder of Rasputin, this one Grigory Yefmovich Rasputin < https://www.cs.tcd.ie/~peircen/xhtml/index.htm> has a concise overview. (ed.)
[20] The text of Rasputin’s last letter can be seen on this site Grigory Yefmovich Rasputin at , https://www.cs.tcd.ie/~peircen/xhtml/last_letter.htm> (ed.)
[21] In
1993 an investigation into Rasputin’s murder uncovered ties between Yusupov and
the British Secret service. An SIS man named Oswald Rayner was in attendance.
He had known Yusupov when Felix attended school in
[22] Rasputin’s great stamina and ability to shirk off death has been either regarded as a fabrication created by Yusupov and the others to somehow justify their actions against the devil’s spawn, others have credited Rasputin’s seeming invulnerability to his mystic powers or faith. However the answer seems to be in the effects of the Elixir combined with an extraordinary Wold Newton derived metabolism.
[23] Lai, Rick The Chronology of Bronze, Pg. 46
[24] This leaving a trail of madmen behind was a trait that Sunlight would continue in his next incarnation.
[25] Yes, I was rather surprised at the imagery myself but you can check it out for yourself if you harbor any doubts.
[26] This extreme display of near ecstatic joy seems a bit extreme if all Sunlight really wanted Doc to do was to aid him in ruling the world. This sounds like a Victorian depiction of a woman in the throes of passion.
[27] These rumors may have been prompted by the James Caliban and Trish Wilde. Baron Karl may have never met Doc Caliban but may have heard about the man who answered the description of Doc Savage having been inducted into the service of the Nine. This man was rumored to have a relationship with a female cousin with similar physical features.
[28] If the Elixir really did have regenerative powers then the patch over his eye may have been symbolic of his station.
[29] At times he is also portrayed as a red-headed man with green eyes. This depiction undoubtedly gave shape to Kickaha, Philip Jose Farmer;s trickster from the World of Tiers series. Although if Paul Janus Finnegan were a real person them perhaps he was a descendent of the red haired Loki.
[30] The corners of the mouth and cheeks are slashed so that a permanent disfiguration looking like a ghastly, unceasing, smile is created.
[31] While my colleague Dennis Powers in his Batman article has theorized a different origin for the Joker, I must disagree with his findings. It is quite understandable how he made the error however, the Joker was notorious for creating elaborate and conflicting origins for himself, as a joke.
[32] It is interesting to note that the Clownfish is one of the species of fish in which individuals can actually change genders.
[33]
The Millicote Chemical Company was the company which was the center of the
Shadow novel, Partners of Peril. This became the basis for the Batman
comic strip "The Case of the Chemical
Syndicate”. Later writers tacked the Joker’s origin into this Batman tale.
While it might be possible that this was a case worked by both the Shadow and
the Batman, it probably was just a Shadow tale. When Finger and Kane were
starting their Batman strip they really did not have much information on The
Batman’s cases and often cribbed their stories from pulp magazines.
[34]
Veetor poisoned his partners, encouraged by the Joker. Veetor was apprehended
by The Shadow as depicted on the Shadow Radio play, “The Laughing Corpse”
[35]
Lester Dent’s notes for these cases of the Doc Savage vs Joker were not found
among his papers in the Lester Dent
collection at the
[36]
This is probably one the Joker’s first deliberate misdirectons about his
origins. He made everyone believe that he was a man with a previous criminal
record in the
[37] However The Joker did not remember this encounter and Doc Savage did not know he was dealing with John Sunlight.
[38] Although this was one contiguous adventure, the DC Comics split it into two tales. We could call the second portion The Grinning Death.
[39]
In the comic The Joker takes refuge in a deserted cemetery. A trick tombstone
opens up a secret passage leading to an underground lair complete with a
laboratory. Naturally this was shown to show the dichotomy between Bruce Wayne
and the Joker,
[40]
Either Otto Drexler had donated or loaned the necklace to the
[41] The Finger-Kane version of the story has a criminal gang, in desperate need of a leader breaking the Joker out of jail so he could plan the theft of the Pharaoh Jewels.
[42] As previously speculated by my colleague in the aforementioned Batman article Dennis Power, The Cat-Woman of the forties was the same Cat-Woman that Batman met in the miniseries Claws of the Cat-Woman. Unable to retrieve the gems looted from her Egyptian cities through legal means, she turned to crime. Her going after the Pharaoh jewels makes sense in this context.
[43] This was actually the first time that the paths of the Joker and the Bat-Man crossed. The events were depicted in Batman Vol 1, No 2. Doc Savage was not depicted in the comic book story, except by allusion. In the Comic it was Batman who was going to kidnap the Joker and take him to have his criminal tendencies removed by a famous brain surgeon.
[44]
Sadly this was never published as either a Doc Savage adventure or a Batman
comic story. There were however notes by John Nanovic who called this case Harlequin’s Deadly Treasure.
[45] Although it is not certain by any means that either
The Doc Savage Magazine or Dent would have retained the title of The Symbolic Jester
Here is its synopsis.
In early 1941 Doc Savage was asked by the city of
Doc is scheduled to attend a charity function in
Patricia Savage attacked the thing but it shrugged her
off. Desperate she grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and pummeled it to no
effect but when she sprayed it the being literally shrank away from the foam.
Some chemical reaction made it’s substance freeze upon contact with the carbon
dioxide. Between Patricia, Doc, Ham and Monk the thing was frozen. The frozen
material was then chopped into bits and incinerated. While they could have kept
the bits frozen, Doc thought it was too great a risk.
After conferring with Long Tom and Johnny, Doc learned
there were no further attacks by the Thing in
While Doc and Pat Savage visited Goddard he launched a
test rocket. A viscous mass oozed out of the rocket after its launch and caused
it to wobble in flight and fall. The mass changed into a winged sphinx which
Patricia fired at with her six shooter. It grabbed Patricia and flew away.
While Monk and Ham helped put out the fire caused by the solid fuel, Doc chased
after the sphinx in his plane. A flaming
fireball suddenly appeared in the sky above Doc’s plane. It fell in an arc
hitting the tail section of Doc’s plane. Doc escaped from his burning plane and
the sphinx flew away with Patricia. The flaming ball that had appeared before
his plane in conjunction with the shape-shifting mass confirmed Doc Savage’s
belief that someone had discovered one of the caches of weapons and material
stolen from The Fortress of Solitude by John Sunlight. The flaming fireball had
been generated by a plasma gun Savage had designed as a countermeasure to
volcanic eruption or oil fires. He believed that the person behind the attacks
on him was Sunlight’s partner Baron Karl.
Meeting back up with Monk and Ham, Doc bought a car
and set off for
Returning to New York City Doc secluded himself in his
lab with some of the samples taken from the various appearances of the Thing.
So far as he could tell these were all grown from the sample he had taken from
the arctic in 1925. He was fairly certain that Baron Karl was responsible but
did not know why he had waited to strike, perhaps it had taken him this long to
culture the Things. While he had some of his agent make inquiries he dressed
for another event that he was obligated to attend. He, Johnny and Patricia were
to make an appearance at the
Rather than wait for the next attack, Doc Savage
planted an item in the newspaper citing that the Sultan of Zanzibar would be giving
him a large diamond known as the King of Diamonds to help with Doc Savage’s
charities. The diamond would be given to Doc in front of his foundation. He
hoped the lure of the gem would prove too overpowering for the Joker. Although
the Joker undoubtedly knew it was a trap.
The Joker disguised as a policeman attempted to steal
the diamond. When Doc Savage attempted to stop him this Joker was revealed as a
Thing, the real Joker grabbed the gem as Doc Savage grappled with the Thing.
The Sultan however grabbed the Joker who the Joker realized was Doc Savage in
disguise. As Doc Savage struggled with the Joker whom he found was freakishly
strong, he hesitated for a second, realizing with a shock just who the Joker
really was. As the Joker slipped away from Doc Savage he found his egress
blocked by the Joker. Seeing his double the Joker began laughing and was
promptly knocked out by this ersatz Joker, who was Patricia Savage in disguise.
Even under Doc Savage’s powerful truth drugs, the
Joker did not reveal much, the damage to his brain that prevented him from
being operated upon also prevented the truth serums from working. He would only tell Doc that he had remembered
where the stuff was hidden but did not know how he knew it had been hidden. He
claimed to be working alone. Doc Savage learned that he had controlled the
Things by implanting an electrode into a nerve cluster of the Things and was
able to control them through radio waves. The electrodes had been invented by
Doc Savage as part of his crime college brain operations. Over Doc Savage’s
protests The Joker was sent to
There may have been a code that only Doc Savage and
perhaps his cousin Pat understood in the symbolism of the shapes made the Things
take and in the locations used for the attacks. Attacking Doc in the World of
Tomorrow mocked his status as the hero to technopolis. The Mammoth was a tweak
to his possible connection to the Nine. The use of the Octopus god of Ral was a
more subtle symbol. It tweaked Doc Savage because the Octopus God cult had been
lead by Lo Lar, who was actually his cousin Lorelei Larsen his great Uncle’s
daughter. Wolf Larsen was his grandfather who later adopted the guise of Baron
Karl von Hessel. The flaming ball in the sky, which in the comic book version
was made more explicitly into a meteorite twigged his relationship to the Wold
Newton family. This was further twigged by the choosing of the African exhibit,
donated by his cousin Lord Greystoke. The Joker was telling Doc Savage that
despite hiding behind the Savage name he knew who Doc Savage really was or at
least believed he did.
[46] In February 1941 at a ceremony in
The next day a nationally syndicated bank was robbed
by the Joker, in every state at the same time. The Joker made a radio
announcement telling the nation that he was now syndicated. If the
Doc had his agents scour past issues of newspapers for
any mentions of training schools or colleges for entertainers or clowns. They
found five such places one in each of the regions of the country. Doc assumed
that these were meeting places from where the prospective candidates would be
taken to the clown college. Doc aided the FBI in making a concerted nation wide
effort to capture as many of the joker’s as possible. He knew that it would be
dangerous for both the FBI men and the jokers to be captured. Ten of the Jokers
were captured, five of them died in captivity, four died taking out the arresting
officers. The remaining joker displayed the same mental conditioning as the
Doc’s clipping service kept watch for any new mention
of the crime college. When an advertisement appeared in late September of 1941
Doc answered it. He was instructed to go to a certain place on the
Continuing with his theme of governmental departments
the Joker told Doc that the Department of Justice would now handle his case.
Doc was forced to dress like a clown and under go a Trial by combat that
involved him undergoing trials with a circus theme. He had to wire walk across
a greased wire over a pool of acid, tame a starving lion, juggle cannon balls
and run a gantlet of clowns. When Doc Savage survived this the Joker decided to
have an actual trial with him as the judge, some of the Jokers as the jury and
prosecuting attorney. Doc did not get to display his legal knowledge however
when the Joker refused to let him plea his case. Doc was sentenced to death.
The Joker laughed that Doc would be the Department of Justice caper and the
Department of Health would be carried out right under his nose as he died.
Doc was made to step into a cell stark naked. The door
was sealed and joker gas was pumped into the room. Doc Savage laughed uncontrollably
pitched forward and died with a smile on his lips.
A half hour after his death the guards entered his
cell to remove his body. Doc moved quickly and disarmed his guards and rendered
them unconscious. He found the
Doc Savage would spend several months trying to cure
the Joker’s victims, to undo the mental conditioning imposed by the Joker at
his clown college. He only had limited success.
[47]
Much has been written about the reason for the Joker’s odd love/hate fixation
on Batman. Most writers tend to portray the Joker as the dark side of Batman,
that the two exist to play off one another in ongoing battle of intellect and
morality. While there may be an element of truth in this assertion, the truth
seems be that the Joker had transferred his affections towards Batman. The most
blatant example of the Joker’s possible sexual orientation is n The Outsider’s Vol 3, No 3. Lex Luthor was kidnapped by the Joker. After
being tortured by the Joker Luthor asks the Joker if it bothers him that Batman
likes the Catwoman better than him. He jibes the Joker that he will never love
him. Joker’s violent reaction can be interpreted as due to him being a
homophobe, that of an unrequited lover being teased about his emotions or
perhaps the over reaction of a homosexual who loathes his nature while
paradoxically reveling in it. Something one could easily see as actually
occurring with the Joker. Although Lex Luthor is portrayed as the President of
the
[48] The small amount of the elixir combined with the remnants of the bacteriological form of the elixir that the Baron had given Ivan may have slowly been healing his brain as well. In any event even if it did not heal the brain injuries it probably had by this time fixed the facial scarring and permanent rictus of the Joker, by this time were an extension of the Joker’s personality and so remained as a psychosomatic condition.
[49] Although Dennis Power’s extensively researched The Lethal Luthors: William Luthor states otherwise, one has to wonder, with her one-eye coupled with the green hair, if the early appearances of Viper alias Madame Hydra were actually Marvel’s portrayal of Lily Bugov.?
[50] As depicted in "The Son of the Joker" Batman 145 (February 1962)
[51] As depicted in DC miniseries Doc Savage (Nov 1987 - Feb 1988)
[52] The Joker may have intended to shoot and humiliate Barbara Grayson while dressed in her Batgirl outfit but instead chose to have her strip naked, shoot her in the spine and take Polaroid’s. He wanted to punish the wife rather than the desecrate the symbol of the Bat.
[53] As seen in the controversial Death in the Family storyline Batman #426-429 in which the fans voted to determine Robin’s fate.
[54] There actually was a massive blackout in March of 1989, although it was blamed on Sunspots rather than Sunlight.
[55] Beau Faulkner said he was carrying on an old family tradition of impersonating Doc. Pat Savage had hinted that Doc had stand ins. In some of the sagas Doc Savage acts very differently than one expects, so is it possible that this was also a stand in? Did Savage have more than one stand in? Was Doc Caliban one of them? Was Faulkner a descendent, perhaps of Trish Wilde and Doc Caliban? More research is certainly needed upon this topic.
[56] It should be remembered that at the time Doc Savage had been sent into the Phantom Zone homosexuality was considered to be treatable mental disorder. He had by now realized John’s orientation and fixation on him and had not totally acculturated to the new psychiatric standards.
[57] In the Doc Savage comic version Merete was accidentally shot by Sunlight’s men. She and Sunlight shared a tender moment before she died. Even in the 1980s the truth about Sunlight’s true nature was censored.
[58] Where he went is perhaps best explained in Win Eckert’s “Doc Wildman” Out of Time” Farmerphile no. 6. October 2006
[59] The modified joker venom must have also contained a genetic virus that compelled the victims to make themselves look like the Joker. Although the rictus, black humor driven violence and unsettling laughter were common among the jokerized, the compulsion to actually look like him only affected a third of them. The events of this were depicted in the DC crossover/mini-series Last Laugh which ran through the DC comics in 2001.
[60] A rather scurrilous rumor circulated that the Joker did not actually die from the brain tumor because the brain tumor was in fact a joke played on the Joker. Instead Nightwing, believing that the Robin had been killed by a jokerized Killer Croc/Lizard beat the Joker to death.