Impossible Man
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| Impossible Man | |
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 The Impossible Man appears on the cover of Fantastic Four #176 (Nov. 1976). Art by Jack Kirby |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Fantastic Four #11 (Feb, 1963) |
| Created by | Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
| In-story information | |
| Species | Poppupian |
| Abilities | Shapeshifting Molecular Manipulation Teleportation |
The Impossible Man is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Fantastic Four #11 (Feb. 1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
The Impossible Man has featured in other Marvel-endorsed products such as action figures, arcade and video games, animated television series, and merchandise such as trading cards.
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] 1960s
When the Impossible Man first appeared,[1] the character differed from previous guest stars in that he was not a villain. The team first meet him at the Flamingo restaurant when they are summoned there to investigate a disturbance. Written by Lee to be a prankster and hedonist, the Impossible Man claimed to belong to the alien race of Poppupians from planet Poppup in the 'Tenth Galaxy', who all share a collective consciousness and the ability to shapeshift, as their planet is so dangerous they have the ability to evolve very quickly. Seeking amusement, the character visits Earth for a vacation by turning himself into a spaceship, talking of a Poppup Tourist Bureau. After finding the superhero team the Fantastic Four and realizing nobody else on Earth has his power (therefore concluding he is the most powerful being on Earth), he constantly harasses them until they decide to ignore him and tell other people to do the same, forcing the Impossible Man to leave as he finds Earth so boring, and saying Earth will never get their tourist business. He gets his name after the Thing claims he is "impossible".[2]
[edit] 1970s
The character does not appear again until 1976. Acting as a deus ex machina in a storyline involving the cosmic entity and world-devourer Galactus, the Impossible Man convinces the character to consume his homeworld Poppup instead of Earth.[3] The Impossible Man then makes a humorous appearance at the offices of Marvel Comics, where he causes havoc until Stan Lee promises to give him his own title.[4]
He offers peripheral assistance to the Fantastic Four when they are trapped in the Negative Zone by the Frightful Four, a team of their enemies.[5] The Impossible Man impersonates Jimmy Carter, on the day when he is to be inaugurated as President of the United States, and briefly takes his place to foil an attempt to enslave him during an adventure with the Thing and the cyborg Deathlok.[6] He later saves the Invisible Woman from a fall[7] and becomes fascinated with Earth movies.[8] When returning to the Baxter Building, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, the Impossible Man is surprised and defeated by the villain Klaw, who, in an alliance with the Molecule Man, attempts to kill the Fantastic Four.[9] During the course of the storyline, the character recovers and, courtesy of his abilities, mimics and defeats Klaw in turn[10] and assists the Fantastic Four in stopping the Molecule Man.[11] The character continued his trend of general disruption during a visit to Hollywood with the Invisible Girl.[12]
[edit] 1980s
After helping the Thing defeat several villains at a party, the Impossible Man observes the Thing with his partner Alicia Masters and becomes lonely. The character then decides to reproduce - here an asexual process - by splitting in two. This creates fellow Poppupian the Impossible Woman.[13] The pair later attempt to recreate their race and create the Impossible Kids, with the entire "family" visiting the Thing.[14] When the Impossible Woman is missing, the character hires private investigator Jessica Drew to locate her,[15] and has an encounter with the mutant X-Men after stealing artifacts from Earth to settle a supposed family dispute with the other members of his race.[16]
More comedic adventures followed, with the Impossible Man engaging in a shapeshifting competition with Warlock,[17] causing havoc on an alternate universe version of Earth,[18] and trying to obtain the movie rights to the autobiography of companion-to-heroes Rick Jones.[19]
[edit] 1990s
The Impossible Man finds and teases the cosmic being the Silver Surfer on two occasions, pleading for him to develop a sense of humor before battling the titan Thanos.[20] The character returns to Earth and causes more mischief,[21] encounters the hero Daredevil whilst looking for a lost child,[22] starts a bar fight,[23] watches the Eternal Makkari win a galactic marathon,[24] and invited various supervillains to the wedding of Rick Jones.[25]
After a brief encounter with the young superhero team the New Warriors,[26] the character enlists the aid of mutant team X-Force to instill some pride in his children,[27] and enters into a wager with the alternate universe imp Mister Mxyzptlk.[28]
[edit] 2000s
The Impossible Man returns to Earth disguised as the Silver Surfer, and after teasing the hero Spider-Man warns of an alien invasion. The Impossible Man's race are also revealed to have survived, with their consciousness stored inside the character. With the aid of the Fantastic Four, the aliens and the newly-reborn Poppupians are transported off world, merging into one race on Spider-Man's suggestion.[29]
The Impossible Man and the Poppupians make a cameo appearance in Noh-Varr's origin story.[30]
Later during the Chaos War, the Impossible Man confronts Mikaboshi, trying to humor and reason with him while shapeshifting in various forms to divert him, but the Chaos King tires of him and brutally dispatches him. Impossible Man's last words were "I thought we were just playing around..."[31]
Impossible Man returns to Earth where he witnesses a battle between Hulk, Red Hulk, and Xemnu. Impossible Man uses his magic to combine Hulk and Red Hulk into the Compound Hulk. Impossible Man watches as the Compound Hulk fights Xemnu's minion Kluh (a smart version of the Gray Hulk).[32]
[edit] Powers and abilities
The Impossible Man's alien physiology gives the character the ability to take on virtually any form via molecular rearrangement. Almost every appearance has featured the Impossible Man mimicking another Marvel character's appearance and their abilities, such as Thor,[9] Klaw,[33] and Wolverine.[34] He also has the ability to teleport across vast interstellar distances and even dimensions, an effect commonly accompanied by a "Pop!" sound effect.
The Impossible Man once battled the New Mutants' Warlock to determine whose shape-shifting ability was superior, a contest Warlock won when he showed he was able to change his colors to match those the forms he mimics, while the Impossible Man could not.[35] This was not the case when he first appeared, however; for instance, when impersonating the Invisible Girl in order to trick Galactus into consuming Poppup, he was fully capable of changing color to make his disguise perfect.[3]
The Impossible Man has an encyclopedic knowledge of Earth's popular culture.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
In this dark reality, the most well known Poppupian is the Ambassador from the Planet Poppup who arrived on Earth and made the mistake a lot of aliens do. He asked to be taken to their leader instead of getting back on his ship and turning around. Things didn't go too well for him as he became a favored pet project of the Beast after he discovered that every DNA strand of this race was identical to every other. He belonged to a species where the genetic potential of the entire race was linked to every member. Like an amoeba, he planned to split the Poppupian tens of thousands of times to reproduce an army of these Impossible Men over and over again. The poor, tortured soul was discovered by Blink who took pity on the Poppupian who begged to have his life ended. She teleported him blindly into nothingness assured that no matter where he went, it was some place better than where he was.[volume & issue needed]
[edit] Wha...Huh?
Impossible Man appears in the spoof comic "Wha...Huh? #1"(2005) in the segment titled "What If Identity Crisis Happened in the Marvel Universe". He appears as a villain that few of the heroes remember.[volume & issue needed]
[edit] In other media
[edit] Television
- The character appears in the 1978 Fantastic Four episode "The Impossible Man", voiced by Frank Welker.
- Impossible Man appears in the 1994 Fantastic Four episode "Hopelessly Impossible", voiced by Jess Harnell.
- Impossible Man appears in the Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes episode "Impossible", voiced by Terry Klassen.
- Impossible Man appears in The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced by Jess Harnell. In the episode "Tremble at the Might of...MODOK!", Impossible Man appears at the Supervillain Big Heads Convention held by MODOK. In the episode "Missing: Impossible!", Impossible Man comes to the Super Hero Squad when his wife kicks him out of their house.
[edit] References
- ^ Fantastic Four #11 (Feb. 1963)
- ^ Fantastic Four #11 (Feb. 1963), page 18
- ^ a b Fantastic Four #175 (Oct. 1976)
- ^ Fantastic Four #176 (Nov. 1976)
- ^ Fantastic Four #177 - 178 (Dec. 1976 - Jan. 1977)
- ^ Marvel Two-In-One #27 (May 1977)
- ^ Fantastic Four #183 (June. 1977)
- ^ Fantastic Four #184 -185 (July - Aug. 1977)
- ^ a b Fantastic Four #186 (Sep. 1977)
- ^ Fantastic Four #187 (Oct. 1977)
- ^ Fantastic Four #188 (Nov. 1977)
- ^ Fantastic Four #193 - 195 (Apr. - July 1978)
- ^ Marvel Two-In-One #60 (Feb. 1980)
- ^ Marvel Two-in-One #86
- ^ Spider-Woman #45 (Aug. 1982)
- ^ X-Men Annual #7 (Dec. 1983)
- ^ New Mutants Annual #3 (Jan. 1987)
- ^ Excalibur #14 (Nov. 1989)
- ^ Avengers Spotlight #25 (Nov. 1989)
- ^ Silver Surfer vol. 3 #33 (Jan. 1990) & #36 (Apr. 1990)
- ^ Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular #1 & 2 (Aug. 1990 & 1991)
- ^ Marvel Comics Presents #91 (Dec. 1991)
- ^ Marvel Comics Presents #97 (June 1992)
- ^ Quasar #58 (May 1994)
- ^ Hulk #417 (June 1994)
- ^ Marvel Comics Presents #162 (Sep. 1994)
- ^ X-Force & Cable Annual (Dec. 1995)
- ^ Silver Surfer/Superman (Nov. 1996)
- ^ Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #1 - 4 (May - Aug. 2007)
- ^ Marvel Boy #5 (Dec. 2000)
- ^ Chaos War: Chaos King #1
- ^ Hulk Vol. 2 #30
- ^ Fantastic Four #187 (Oct. 1976)
- ^ Silver Surfer vol. 3, #31 (Apr. 1990)
- ^ New Mutants Annual #3
[edit] External links
- Impossible Man at Marvel.com
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