Monday, April 21, 2014

Gomez Addams : Herman Munster :: Bruce Wayne : Clark Kent

This is awesome. [Link]
Basically it's a class distinction thing, I think. Bruce and Gomez both have inherited wealth and upper class habits; they could very well have visited each other's ancestral mansions as boys. But Clark and Herman are both working blokes—and Clark started out back in the days when "reporter" still was a fairly working class occupation, before it morphed into a profession. I think it was Jules Feiffer who wrote about Superman as the ultimate assimilated immigrant, and Herman could fit that pattern as well—I always imagined his last name used to have an umlaut, as the other likely option is Irish, which really doesn't seem to fit. Gomez, on the other hand, never bothered to assimilate; he's too rich to need to.

It's a minor point that Hermann is physically strong and tough, possibly superhumanly so, whereas Gomez's most important superpower is money.

But also, it just strikes me that "I'm going to dress up like a bat and fight crime!" is absolutely the sort of scheme Gomez would come up with, without a moment's worry about whether it was eccentric. He's got a faithful butler to help him (a conversation between Alfred and Lurch would be worth spying on!); he's got an erotically charged relationship with Morticia, as Bruce has with Selina; he's got a mansion that probably has hidden rooms and cellars and secret passages. Though I think if he had a kid sidekick Wednesday would be likelier than Pugsley; she's the one who had the karate lessons.


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