I remember the issue of The Thing where writer John Byrne revealed Lockjaw to be able to speak with human intellect, and that his canine form was part of his reaction to the Terrigen Mists. Other writers later undid this moment, explaining that it was all just a prank played on Ben Grimm by some of the other Inhumans. It's probably for the best, Byrne's retcon would have painted The Inhumans in a poor light, treating one of their own as a pet for years.
So instead it's ok to have him jumping thru hoops. Sheesh. If he is 100% animal who does food, clean up, and such? I prefer that he is like Hank McCoy's Beast form. Hopefully the JLA will treat him a whole lot better since Krypto and Ace trained their owners to set the example for others. Fun cover though.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Lockjaw can join The Burger Masters with Scooby.
ReplyDeleteSo, instead, John got Byrned?! No wonder so many of Marvel's best and brightest thought they could do better as the founder of Image Comics!
ReplyDeleteAt least, initially.
But, enough seriousness. Let's talk about this hilarious cover-sim! Lockjaw, joining the JLA? I have to wonder why he'd defect from the Pet Avengers. And there's only one reason I can think of: The Collector already has the P.A. under lock...and Key.*
*LOL!
I agree with you about Lockjaw's status; "it was a prank" seems like a silly explanation, but I'd be hard-pressed to come up with anything even marginally better. Even so, I'm wondering how things can be communicated in this scenario; Lockjaw's smarter than the average dog, and can understand humans (and Inhumans) fairly well, but none of the JLAers shown here are in a position to understand anything he tries to get across.
ReplyDeleteStill, it occurs to me that, since we got The Question vs. the Answer, maybe The Key has an opposite form in someone called The Lock? Probably not, but it's worth pondering.
On another topic, I think it's been a while since you had a cover that was focused on something other than crimefighting, like the Prince-Rogers wedding or the gathering of The Burger Masters. What if (for example) Medusa, Godiva, and Entrapta were to have a spa day together? (Ideal -- though probably beyond possibility -- would be a recreation of the hair salon scene from Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk" video.)
I have a feeling that You haven't seen the last wedding on this blog.
ReplyDelete@Bob and Ross: how about he was briefly occupied by the Deadman of Earth-STF at Rama Kushna's orders? Thereby using Lockjaw as the canine equivalent of a ventriloquist dummy!
ReplyDelete@Ross: you mean, Shadowcat and Batman?
ReplyDeleteTime will tell who will tie the knot.
ReplyDeleteLooking ahead for when the G.I. Joes get trapped in WW II with Easy Co. and the Howling Commandos. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading & enjoying that story too: It seemed to make so much sense... and the Inhuman leadership in those days did have its problematic aspects. Remember how resistant they were to the idea of anybody from outside the royal family getting exposed to the Terrigen Mists? They conceded eventually in the case of baby Luna's nursemaid, and for her it worked, but maybe Lockjaw had been another commoner who was exposed and managed this prior approval, so when it gave him this form they basically said "Serves you right" and he was too indoctrinated -- and/or too depressed -- to object?
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Bob Greenwade said...
"Even so, I'm wondering how things can be communicated in this scenario; Lockjaw's smarter than the average dog, and can understand humans (and Inhumans) fairly well, but none of the JLAers shown here are in a position to understand anything he tries to get across."
Wonder Woman of that time couldn't understand the speech of all animals? Even if that's the case in DC canon, maybe her Earth-STF counterpart could? Also, doesn't Hal's ring provide translation as needed?
Oh, and shouldn't J'onn's telepathy work?
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Seeing an Inhuman with the JLA reminds me of something that I was wondering about a few weeks ago: Does Earth-STF have the Celestials, who went around creating 'Eternal' & 'Deviant' offshoots of sapient peoples? If it does, then maybe that explains all-powered peoples such as the Kryptonians & Daxamites (branches of Earth's Eternals, transplanted by the Celestials themselves as a further experiment or by somebody else in the hope that they could be turned into living weapons? And the Green Martians & White Martians are Martian versions of Eternals & Deviants (or vice versa?) with the "normal" stock having died out? Or the two Martian groups are the Eternals & Deviants of the Durlan species, banished to this system in antiquity (before internal warfare wrecked the Durlans' genes)?
Oops! In the first section of the above post, I accidentally omitted the word "without" from "without prior approval".
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Bugs Bunny: "For shame, Doc! That's like huntin' elephants without an elephant gun!"
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the new wedding (Starr-Lucas, perhaps?), I still would love to see the above-named trichokinetic trio together, spa day or not.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, I'm surprised nobody's yet thought to suggest Cloak & Dagger dealing with Spy vs. Spy. (Or have they?)
Incidentally, have any comics that showed us the Inhumans at home -- especially before that revelation about Lockjaw -- shown them as keeping mundane dogs?
ReplyDelete@Bob Greenwade: if worse comes to worst, they could always have B'wana Beast or Animal Man act as LJ's intermediary/translator.
ReplyDelete@Cary: Yeah, or Detective Chimp (who should meet Lockjaw and the other Pet Avengers here in any event).
ReplyDeleteEven better! Mr. Greenwade? You're a genius. :-)
ReplyDeleteDetective Chimp will be showing up soon.
ReplyDeleteI always assumed Lockjaw was one of the royale's pets who got accidentally exposed to the Terrigen Mists. Like maybe he jumped into the exposure chamber as the door was closing because his owner at the time had just gone in for their exposure. Or he was exposed to them on purpose as an experiement: can the Terrigen Mists effect animals? That last one is more likely since we have never seen any of the Inhumans having pets.
ReplyDelete@Wild Card: that's how I attribute Fera's anthropomorphic tendencies. Mutation due to Terrigen Mist exposure as perpetrated by Maximus the Mad on behalf of Master Khan (and, later, Dredmund Druid).
ReplyDeleteFera, of course, being a female lycanthrope from Kun-Lun. But, not one of the Jack Russell-By-Night variety!
ReplyDeleteSimreeve did pretty well. No stretch to have the Inhumans lie to Ben to protect their "secret weapon".(Shades of the original Supergirl.) The FF may be great friends, but they are still not part of the Inhumans' royalty line.
ReplyDeleteThat's gonna have to change once Franklin Richards marries Luna Maximoff. At least, on Mayday Parker's homeworld (Marvel Earth-Next)!
ReplyDeleteLockjaw is not jumping through a hoop - he is jumping thru a dimensional portal otherwise you would see the rest of Flash's leg, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd Bob Greenwade is right, the Martian Manhunter is the logical communicator to Lockjaw. Byrne wrote some really silly stories sometimes trying to put stamp on characters.
@"me": I never said that Martian Manhunter would be the logical communicator with Lockjaw. It's true, of course, and I should've thought of that from the start without bringing up the question.
ReplyDeleteTo my knowledge, The Question can't talk to animals.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: GROOOOOOOOOOOOOAN!
ReplyDeleteHe can talk to them, but they won't necessarily understand him anymore than anyone else.
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