Moose Mason

Marmaduke "Moose" Mason (often referred to as Big Moose) is a fictional character in the Archie Comics universe. He attends Riverdale High School and his difficulties with school were later attributed to dyslexia. Mason is a Russian-American.

Character's background

He consistently scores straight F's (which he thinks means Fantastic) but is Riverdale's number one athlete. Moose is the personification and stereotype of the Jock—all brawn and no brains. Moose's learning difficulties were later revealed to be dyslexia, which made it harder for him to understand what his teachers, such as Miss Grundy, were writing on the chalkboard. Moose has done better at school when he needs to, and is able to understand complex subjects like algebra if people explain them to him enough-something which nearly drove Reggie Mantle crazy when he acted as Moose's math tutor.

Moose is extremely possessive of Midge Klump, his steady girlfriend, and has time and again flattened anybody (Reggie Mantle is his most frequent victim) who seeks her affection. This possessiveness is at times taken to extremes - he's wary of any male even speaking to her, and has at times assaulted even his best friends, inflicting injuries that should, by all rights, be life-altering. There are times when Midge cannot stand Moose's jealousy and ends up scolding him, but every time he just wants to give Midge some space, she decides that she prefers the old Moose.

He's thrashed Archie before for various things, but since he knows that Archie isn't anywhere near interested in Midge as a girlfriend, this allows Moose to be more tolerant of Archie. At one time, a computer matched Archie and Midge, to Moose's fury, but Archie and Midge both stated that they weren't interested in each other, except as friends, which allows Moose to cool off.

At one point, Archie outright asks permission to date Midge, and Moose declined the request, but it showed, that at least Archie has the courtesy to ask him, whereas Reggie will stoop to dating her on the sly.

Moose spends a lot of time hiding behind park benches inhabited by his girlfriend, Midge. He does this so that whenever somebody comes along to talk to her, he can jump out and clobber him. Moose has a mean streak in many comics that show his pleasure in hurting people, and he will often hurt somebody because it amuses him. These people have been adults from time to time, but mostly skinny teenagers.

Moose has a deep admiration of Dilton Doiley as his "Little Buddy," (probably because of Dilton's intelligence) and will go to any length to help the diminutive genius.

Moose also has a deeply sensitive side, to his friends, which is all of the Archie comics characters, mostly to his close friends, Dilton Doiley, Archie Andrews, and Jughead Jones.

Moose is blessed with such great strength that people often have high expectations of him when it comes to sports. He has helped Riverdale High School win many matches in basketball, baseball and football.

In Archie comics as late as the 1970s, Moose sported a flattop haircut. Also, in earlier days, whenever Moose talked he would start off with a "D-uh." In today's Archie world, Moose isn't as dumb as he appears. He was offered a full football scholarship to a University. When he found out that they wanted to place him into "joke classes" so he would get good grades, he turned down the offer. When asked about it he replied "I may be dumb, but there's no reason for me to stay dumb!". He also briefly dropped out of high school, but returned upon realizing he would need a college education to get the jobs he would like to try. He seems to have tried both a modified moptop and a modified flattop in recent years.

Despite his limited intelligence, Moose is very kind, loyal, and compassionate. He's always willing to help somebody in need, and he constantly protects his friends from bullies (often without using punches).

These tendencies may be inherited from one of his first ancestors to immigrate to the United States. In one story, a Russian by the name of "Lazslo Kharandashikov" befriended Archie Andrews's Scottish ancestor "Andy Andrews" when they met on the same ship immigrating to the U.S. Laslo protected Andy from another man who wanted to beat Andy up, and Andy returned the favor by finding Laslo's immigration money for him after Laslo nearly lost it. Laslo's difficulty in speaking English led him to give his name as "Mason" (from a sign he saw at the harbor) to the immigration officials who let him into the country.

In some stories one of the gang, usually Archie, asks for Moose's help with a problem that can only be solved by means of the big guy's strength or intimidating presence. In a story titled "Guardian Devil," Archie and Betty meet a runaway child whose hospitalized mother left the boy in her brother's care; but the brother locked the kid in his room and had wild parties in the house--until Archie brought Moose over to straighten things out. In another story, Archie had tracked down two thugs who robbed the Chok'lit Shoppe, using a description given by Jughead, whom the cops had found in the store and initially accused. The thugs had just started beating Archie when Moose showed up; he picked the thugs up like rag dolls and hustled them off to the police station.

In another story, two young children vandalize a classroom in Riverdale High School and Moose takes the blame for them.

Trivia

• Decades before "Duh" became a synonym for something so obvious that everyone should know it, Moose's catchphrase was "D-uh", usually uttered as he is contemplating a thought. (Stan Freberg used the same vocalization for dimwitted characters like Junyer Bear.) When Moose says it, he's not being sarcastic. Persons who grew up reading Archie (or seeing the cartoon on television) would, when implying that someone was as dull-witted as Moose, say "D-uh". Some even pronounced it "Dee-uh", unaware that Moose was smarter in that respect.
• In the Spanish version of the comic, Moose is called "Gorilón" (lit. Big Gorilla).
• In at least one story in the 50s, Moose gives his real name as "Merton Matowski."
• Moose has appeared briefly in one episode of the Simpsons, along with Archie, Reggie and Jughead, where they drive up to the Simpsons' house and dump Homer unceremoniously onto the front lawn. Moose then warns Homer to "Stay outta Riverdale!" Later, Homer reads an Archie comic and calls them all "stuck-up Riverdale punks."
• Moose Mason is an expert pilot.
• Moose's real name Marmaduke, is used in the book "Fame School: Rising Star" as Danny's new roommate and good friend.

Friends

Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Dilton Doiley, Nancy Woods, Reggie Mantle, Chuck Clayton, Midge Klump, Big Ethel, (known as Ethel Muggs), and other characters from Archie Comics.