Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes)
Calvin is a fictional character in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. He is one of the strip's primary characters, along with Hobbes. Calvin first appeared in the first strip of the comic and in the very first panel. The first dialogue in the strip was Calvin's line, "So long, pop. I'm off to check my tiger trap". Calvin appeared in almost every strip that was printed and published.
Personality
Named after 16th century theologian John Calvin (founder of Calvinism and a strong believer in predestination), Calvin is an impulsive, insubordinate, imaginative, energetic, curious, intelligent, and often deep-seatedly selfish (see Recurring themes in Calvin and Hobbes#Calvin's apparent "lack of money") six-year-old, whose last name the strip never gives. Though Calvin is usually shown as caring only about himself, he has appeared otherwise on occasion to have a deep care for animals, such as the time he found an injured baby raccoon, got his parents to try to help it, and then cried when it died; he also mourns the loss of a bird that died when it hit a window. Although he once rambled about birds not being able to write memoirs, many strips have him commenting on the pettiness of humans and shows him envying animals.
Despite his low grades, Calvin has a wide vocabulary range that rivals that of an adult as well as an emerging philosophical mind, implying that he comes from a naturally literate family, as seen in this anecdote:
- Calvin: "Dad, are you vicariously living through me in the hope that my accomplishments will validate your mediocre life and in some way compensate for all of the opportunities you botched?"
- Calvin's father: "If I were, you can bet I'd be re-evaluating my strategy."
- Calvin (later, to his mother): "Mom, Dad keeps insulting me."
He has also said, "You know how (Albert) Einstein got bad grades as a kid? Well, mine are even worse!" In school, he typically does almost no work; for a project on bats, he writes a brief poem that describes bats as "unspeakable giant bugs," and for his "scientific illustration," he "traced the Batman logo and added fangs." He appears to have some disdain for learning, as he once brags that he was successfully able to resist being taught anything. However, when he is once reluctant to go to the library to learn about snakes, he then realizes that learning is fun if it is not enforced. His difficulties in school may thus stem from the style of teaching, which may be why he imagines it as a prison or similar facility, and fantasizes about destroying it or fighting his teacher, Mrs. Wormwood. Mrs. Wormwood also notes that if he put half as much energy into his work as he did into his protests, he might do well.
He commonly wears his distinctive red-and-black striped shirt. Watterson has described Calvin thus:
- "Calvin is pretty easy to do because he is outgoing and rambunctious and there's not much of a filter between his brain and his mouth."[1]
- "I guess he's a little too intelligent for his age. The thing that I really enjoy about him is that he has no sense of restraint, he doesn't have the experience yet to know the things that you shouldn't do."
- "The socialization that we all go through to become adults teaches you not to say certain things because you later suffer the consequences. Calvin doesn't know that rule of thumb yet."
The subject of Calvin's grades was addressed in another strip, where Calvin's father points out that he loves to learn, and "has read just about every dinosaur book ever written." He then asks, "So why aren't you doing better in school?" Calvin replies, "We don't read about dinosaurs."
Calvinistic predestination as a philosophical position basically entails the idea that the human action affecting a person's ultimate salvation or damnation is predestined beforehand. Calvin's consistent gripe is that the troublesome acts he commits are outside of his control: he is simply a product of his environment, a victim of circumstances. He does frequently escape from his environment into elaborate fantasy worlds; one of the strip's recurring devices is the humorous juxtaposition of Calvin's fantastic perception with the quotidian viewpoint of other characters. On many occasions, Calvin sees himself in an alternate guise: as the astronaut and explorer Spaceman Spiff, the superhero Stupendous Man, the private eye Tracer Bullet and many others (see Calvin's alter-egos).
In addition, Calvin has a highly developed artistic streak for his age. That is evident during the winter when Calvin indulges in constructing highly creative, if typically grotesque, snowmen and related tableaus.
Both Calvin and Hobbes seem to be fans of Batman, which is the only "real" superhero that Calvin likes, although he is never seen reading any of the comics. There have been few references in some strips, one such is when Calvin begs his mom for dinosaur merchandise at the museum gift shop, and then he uses a trick, saying that the toys are educational for him. After his mom buys the toys, Calvin says: "I wonder if we can get any Batman junk this way!", stating that his mom probably won't buy any Batman merchandise. Another reference is when Calvin and Hobbes are talking about why superheroes won't battle more realistic supervillains in comic books. Hobbes admits, and thinks that superheroes could send letters to the editor and pursue civic involvement rather than crime fighting. He then shouts: "Quick, to the Bat-Fax!", which is a parody of Adam West's famous catchphrase: "Quick, to the Batmobile!" from the 1960s Batman television series. Also when Calvin gave a report about bats, for the cover of the report he "traced the Batman logo and added fangs."
Calvin's alter-egos
Calvin's hyperactive imagination leads him to imagine himself as other characters with different powers and goals; he sometimes vanishes into a fantasy to escape a difficult situation (like a school quiz). It is important to note that Hobbes is not seen taking part in the fantasies involving Calvin's alter-egos, other than criticizing his choice of alternate personae. On several occasions, Calvin has appeared as either a larger or a smaller version of himself, wreaking havoc like Godzilla or crawling across a book page as "Calvin, the human insect." More frequently, however, his imagination transforms him into a being of a different kind.
Spaceman Spiff
Spiff, "interplanetary explorer extraordinaire," explores the outermost reaches of the universe ("by popular request") in a red flying saucer with a bubble canopy. Spiff wears square glasses, or goggles, whose front openings change their shape according to his emotions. The galaxy is a cruel place where Spiff is often zapped, shot down, or captured by ferocious and disgusting aliens (who, in reality, are people such as Calvin's parents, Miss Wormwood, etc.), stranded in a desert, on a planet, or both. Most planets seem devoid of civilization, and often have hostile environments or alien predators.
Stupendous Man
Stupendous Man is a superhero Calvin often becomes. Calvin becomes Stupendous Man with the help of a mask and cape his mother created for him. Calvin only possesses the crimson cape and cowl; his imagination supplies the rest of the spandex outfit. Despite his frequent use of various "stupendous powers", Stupendous Man has admittedly only won "moral victories".
Tracer Bullet
Bullet is a tough-guy private investigator styled after film noir and detective fiction stereotypes; consequently, he wears a trench coat and fedora. He resembles Calvin, though the high-contrast art style Watterson uses in the Tracer Bullet strips (which heavily resembles the film noir-style Frank Miller adopted for his comic series Sin City) obscures Bullet's features.
Others
- Dinosaurs: Calvin loves dinosaurs; they are one of the few subjects he studies of his own free will. This, of course, means that Calvin imagines himself as a dinosaur in many of the strips. Whenever Calvin is pretending to be a dinosaur, he is usually a predator (such as a Tyrannosaurus rex) on the hunt. Calvin frequently moves several sizes up to match larger and stronger kids, hoping that pretending he is a dinosaur will enable him to win. Sadly, he usually gets pounded. He also uses sinus congestion as an excuse for making dinosaur noises.
- Godzilla:On a number of occasions Calvin appears as a godzilla-like character (usually in the bathtub) and runs around his house creating havoc.
- Animals: Calvin sees himself in a variety of animal bodies as well, from large mammals to insects. Sometimes this is a result of being transmogrified.
- Forces of nature/objects: Calvin sometimes imagines himself as a gigantic thunderstorm, a light particle, an active volcano, a planet causing a solar eclipse, a "C-bomb," an omnipotent deity, a safe, and so on.
- Calvin occasionally finds himself being randomly mutated into various forms, such as a giant or tiny form of himself, somehow reversing his "personal gravity," or becoming half-human, half-fly (as in The Fly).
- Captain Napalm: a superhero who protects "truth, justice and the American Way." Only seen on two occasions and is a satirical Captain America of sorts. Calvin draws this character from a comic book hero of the same name, leader of the "Thermonuclear League of Liberty," whose exploits he diligently reads, though he is rarely seen with a new issue of it. It appears that this character was superceded by Stupendous Man
- Safari Al: once in a daily strip Calvin acted as Safari Al, a jungle explorer, and discovers a "giant gorilla". The gorilla turns out to be Calvin's mom stating "clean your room, it's a jungle in here".
Inventions
Calvin occasionally makes machines (usually made out of a box), which normally lead to disaster. Here is a list of all of his inventions:
- Transmogrifier: A box with the open part down. It has a dial on the side with various creatures labeled. It morphs the subject(s) under the box into whatever the dial is set to, usually to some sort of animal. (For example, Calvin morphs into an elephant in order to memorize his homework.) If the subject does not want to morph into an animal or object that is on the dial, he can simply write the names of new objects on the box.
- Portable Transmogrifier, a.k.a. Transmogrifier Gun: A squirt gun that fires a burst of light. It transforms the target into whatever the shooter is thinking of, usually an animal of some sort. However, it often has unintended consequences; when Hobbes turns Calvin into a pterodactyl, he comes out far smaller than he thought, and is disappointed enough to shoot Hobbes with the gun, starting a shooting war that uses up the ammunition before Calvin can revert to a human (but he somehow turns back on his own). On another occasion, while free-falling from his balloon, Calvin shoots himself with the gun with the idea of making himself "safe," and transforms into a safe.
- Duplicator: A box that is sideways with a button on it. It can clone whoever is under it; Calvin cloned himself in an attempt to get his chores done. However, the clone rebelled, running off to play before creating four additional clones, all of whom got Calvin into trouble and left him to take the blame. Calvin eventually turned the clones into worms while they were hiding under the Duplicator, which he turned into a Transmogrifier by writing on it with a marker.
- Upgraded Duplicator, with Ethicator: Calvin uses this to create a "good" version of himself to perform various chores and go to school; it initially seems as though Calvin has undergone a significant personality change before Calvin reveals what is going on. The "good" version has hair that is combed flat, is extremely helpful and responsible, is quite even-tempered, and, unfortunately for Calvin, has a heavy crush on Susie Derkins. However, when Calvin discovers that the the "good" Calvin loves Susie, and when the duplicate learns of Calvin's reputation (through Susie), he becomes angry, and when he threatens to rip Calvin limb from limb, he is destroyed for having an evil thought (which Calvin describes as a "built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron"). Because of this Hobbes point out how even his good side is "prone to badness".
- Time Machine: A box with the open side facing up. Calvin initially planned to take himself and Hobbes to the future, but they took a wrong turn and ended up in the past. On another trip, they took photographic proof, but his dad thought they were toy dinosaurs. Calvin also attempted a smaller-scale time travel; he went from 6:30 to 8:30 one night to pick up an assignment, but learned from the version of himself at 8:30 that he had never done the work. While the 6:30 and 8:30 Calvins fruitlessly attempted to get the 7:30 Calvin, whom both of them blamed, to do the work, the 6:30 and 8:30 Hobbeses finished the work.
- Box of Secrecy: In one strip, Susie had to stay at Calvin's house for a few hours. Horrified by this idea, Calvin called an emergency meeting of G.R.O.S.S to deal with the siutation, but there wasn't time to get to the regular HQ (Calvin's treehouse). As a result, he and Hobbes crawled underneath the cardboard box to hold an emergency meeting. The name "box of secrecy" is a take on the "cone of silence" from the TV series Get Smart.
The Noodle Incident
A running gag that was introduced slightly later on during the comic. Whenever a character, usually Hobbes, mentions it to Calvin, he immediately gets very defensive about it. We never see the Noodle Incident itself, nor do any of the characters ever explain what events transpired. Watterson mentioned he kept it this way to leave it to the reader's imagination. These are the only facts we know about the Noodle Incident:
- It took place at school. When Calvin's mother returned home from meeting Calvin's teacher, he immediately asked if she had been told about the noodles.
- It was a while ago, and therefore, must have been a very serious incident for it to still be remembered.
- To try and prove innocence, Calvin apparently thought of a cover story the creativity of which impressed Hobbes. Calvin however, even now claims that it was the "unvarnished truth". Like the incident itself, we are never told exactly what Calvin's excuse was.
- It is not exactly stated one way or the other, but it seems to be implied that Calvin was caught, therefore his cover story was not believed.
- According to Calvin, although apparently caught, no one can prove he did it. However, considering Calvin may just be defensive about it makes such a statement questionable.
- The fact that Hobbes repeatedly brings it up (as did Santa in Calvin's imagination once), seems to imply the memory still haunts Calvin to this day.
- Although it is not certain, it is believed that the Noodle Incident had to do with when Calvin was sent home early. "Did it have something to do with those sirens around noon?" The strip in which that quote is directly preceded by one in which Calvin states he will "go for the gusto" at school.