with a fellow named... well let's just call him "Steve."

Steve was certainly an amicable enough sport. We talked about the upcoming holidays and our plans. Comics were a topic of coversation. He and I discussed the current state of both our pull lists, of whether or not comics will die out because of trades and digital downloads, and each one of us recommended series that have been collected to consider. It was all very amicable.

Until we started to discuss the Parodyverse, and Steve made some comments that were striking in their tenor. He mused about "Hatman" being "killed off." Words like "straight man" and "no character development" were used.

I was stunned. Then appalled. Then angry. My rage, if not white hot, was a definite off-white. Ecru, maybe. Or Mother of Pearl. I furiously pointed out a couple of great things about our Capped Crusader to Steve, things I'll post later in this thread. But what I want to do first is turn to you, readers and writers of the PVB, and have you share your own thoughts on what makes Hatty irreplaceable in the Parodyverse. What he does that no other hero can, and what he could do that no other hero couldn't to make him even greater.
So please, take a few minutes and let Steve know why Hatman rocks.

Because, you know, he'd do it for you.

I'm not sure how to put my thoughts into words but "Steve" is wrong: Hatman is a great character!

I see where "Steve" is coming from, I've been there m'self. I barely ever found my own character any fun to write, and other people took him further, and in more interesting directions, than I would've if left alone.

Hatman, though, he's different. I get that this "Steve" may think Hatty's just the Riley Finn of the Parodyverse-- the rock-solid Canadian farm-boy type of superhero who will never let you down but whom others may find boring because he's so damn good and proper and upright. But that's because he's a hero's hero, and some good guys just have to be that dang good.

Hatty's a friend to many and a hero to all. He's just a stand-up guy. Maybe that makes him boring, but I think it makes him a hero in the classic vein. Also, he's got the best damn power gimmick of any superhero ever-- not just in the Parodyverse, but anywhere. It's brilliant.

Maybe Hatty just has to go evil for a bit. That always spices things up. Maybe he just needs to develop a tragic flaw, or a cause to fight for, or some sort of new twist to what makes him tick. But I've always liked Hatman, and I always thought he filled an excellent role in the 'verse: he's the guy that made it, the guy groomed into being one of the best superheroes around. Maybe he's got to fall back down and climb back up in order to realize just what that meant to him. Hmm.

I wouldn't kill him off, though. This "Steve" sounds as bloodthirsty as Dan DiDio.

One minute the girl scout was accepting her award from Yuki Shiro. The next she exploded.     The detonation caught the Lair Legion unawares. The eleven year old evaporated in a spray of gore that drenched them and the rest of Elizabeth Tilley’s troupe, the winners of the National Be-a-Hero competition who’d travelled from Marmaduke, Texas to meet the world’s greatest superheroes.     Liz Tilley burst like a blood-filled balloon and a number of things happened all at once. The Lair Mansion biohazard alarms went off. Hallie activated an emergency crashdown, sealing the building airtight and releasing broad-spectrum antitoxins and antiviral nanobots. CrazySugarFreakBoy! grabbed the remaining children and scooped them away from the area. Mr Epitome checked the perimeter for follow-up attacks.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“This is a very interesting virus,” noted the Manga Shoggoth as if children exploded around him every day. “It has a number of fascinating qualities.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“A virus?” Yuki questioned sharply. “What kind?” Already her onboard sensors were picking up fast-replicating airborne particles. Her scan of Liz’s pulped remains quickly identified the surgically-installed delivery system. Somebody had transformed the child into a walking bomb, with technology good enough to pass through the Legion’s bio-scans.     Al B. Harper was already at the nearest terminal. “Something pretty new,” he suggested. “It’s been designed to bond with our cellular systems, even the Shoggoth’s, and while it won’t kill him the rest of us have a matter of hours.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t have any exposed organics,” Yuki pointed out. “I can check out…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You can’t,” Hallie warned the cyborg P.I. “It’s bonded to your artificial skin so you’ll need refitting. And even if it wasn’t, the virus is airborne in your section of the mansion. There’s no way you can get out without releasing the biohazard as well.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Somebody’s trying to kill us,” Al growled. “And they’re aiming kids at us!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Or maybe they’re just trying to just pin us down.” CSFB! reasoned. “Keep us out of the way while they do their nefarious plot.” He turned back to Hallie. “Is Hatty still with the President? Patch into his comm-card fast and tell him he’s got…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Six hours,” estimated Al B.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Six hours to find out what the hell is going on.” ***     Ã¢â‚¬Å“…Senator just exploded like an overinflated tyre,” snarled Dan Drury, Agent of SPUD. “An’ that, combined with a sophisticated little bit of hacking to prevent our bioseals deploying for just a couple seconds has forced the entire helicarrier into quarantine. Something’s going on and I don’t like it one little bit.” He bit his cigar in two and slammed his fist on the table. “Something’s happenin’ and these bozos already tied our hands.” He leaned towards the viewscreen. “You gotta find out whut an’ stop it.”     The man at the other end of the transmission nodded. “I’m on it, Colonel,” agreed Silver Aegis. *** Original concepts, characters, and situations copyright © 2007 reserved by Ian Watson. Other Parodyverse characters copyright © 2007 to their creators. The use of characters and situations reminiscent of other popular works do not constitute a challenge to the copyrights or trademarks of those works. The right of Ian Watson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.

Well, as glib as that sounds, it's true and makes one of the reasons. Because Hatman would do it for one of the other LL'ers.

Hatman is steadfast in his beliefs. I enjoy that. He is a rock that you can always rely on. He’s tough, not Donar class perhaps (unless he has the Steeler’s hat on) but he never gives up. Look at him in the Black’s Crossing trilogy, or during the Parody War. That was awesome inspirational Hatman. I like having a character like that around. It is this determination, even against overwhelming odds, that makes him a good read.

He also has been involved in what I would suggest is a quintessential Parodyverse romance. That with Whitney Darkness aka the Sorceress. Perhaps Visionary and Hallie comes close, but Hallie isn’t a poster character, while Whitney was, and that gave it a whole other dimension. It also worked against it in the end, true, but both characters have moved on from it now in a way which I also feel shows that relationships can end and people can move on in a realistic and believable way.. I think Hatty still has more to give on that respect though, I’m not convinced Zendeka is the one for him – so I wait to see what happens next.

Of course, his power is great and unique as has already been said.

It’s actually been a while since we had a Jay penned Hatman story. I’d like to read one.

Or how’s this – if “Steve” feels that Hatman is past his used by date, why don’t the rest of us call a “Hatman Week!” where we each write a Hatman story for that week?

I’m game!

Al B.

When I write stories with Hatman in them I think of him as a motivator, which is even more important than his personality as a hero. He sets the bar, he sets an example, or simply urges others to do their best without really pressuring them, and they seem to live up to the potential he envisions for them.

In other words he could retire as a hero and simply lead the Lair Legion and have the same impact on the others he does now.

... Isn't it up to him? Maybe he feels he's outgrown the character and is ready for even grander things that will further advance and challenge his writing abilities. However, from my standpoint, I do think Hatman is a great character. It's great to have someone who can be hard as steel one minute and quickly morph into a bird or a cloud of gas or whatever just based on the hat he's wearing. Limitless storytelling potential in that regard. Reminds me of that videogame from the 80's ("The Blob" or something?) where you would feed a blob different flavored jellybeans and he would change into different items.

...because a person "outgrowing" a character can mean two things. It can mean the old characters have been outgrown, and a new stable of more up-to-date characters is imminent. Or it could mean the writer itself is saying he's outgrown the Parodyverse and wants out.

When I saw the original post, quite frankly I was more worried about the second part. Now there's nothing any of us can do if the writer is determined to bail out. But if the problem is the writer feels left out and feels that the character has become irrelevant, that we can fix.

If irrelevance is the problem I guess I can see the point. Hatman is a leader, but in a much more abstract way than he used to be- he's more of an inspiration for the Lair Legion now. The plus side is he's a fixture in that community. The minus is he lacks the freedom to action that someone like the Silver Aegis does, and maybe the writer misses that simplicity.

Or perhaps it's my fault. I've been posting stories with a few characters who are sort of heroes but are not decidedly so. They straddle the grey area, and that gives me more freedom as a writer - because the stories don't have to be black-and-white, good vs. evil, perfect foil setups for the hero. One example would be World Class: Keiko started out as a professional killer - the last person you could sympathize with. Only then you could. She gets into a very imperfect relationship, and somehow you see why she did. Keiko is decidedly not a classic hero, and doesn't have to be perfect or even right.

Anyway, just posting this in case it rings a bell with whoever brought up the original topic. I'm hoping shining some light on it might bring some inspiration, and then I can point out that Hatman's best feature is he can change, and so can the world around him. Killing off a character is admitting it can't be changed, and I think we're far from that point.

No.

I think you may have taken my original post a bit too seriously.


I'd argue with all of that. Hatty's a leader in a tactical sense, not just an inspirational one.

Considering he's one of the team's most powerful and versatile members, he would certainly have less of an impact if he retired.

Indeed he would.



Good examples. I also liked the story where he went mano a mano with the Onslaughter.



I enjoyed reading the entire arc of the Hatman/Sorcy relationship, and thought it ended in a beliveable, satisfactory way.



Yeah. His powers really do allow for a lot of creative applications.



He's written a couple post Parody War which have been up to their usual standards.



Ditto.

An interesting set up. I'm eager to see how a Hatman/SA team up would work, since they're alike in some ways, though the Shield Flinger's square-jawed idealism is a bit more, er, flamboyant.

I agree. Hatman's more "straight arrow" than straight man in my mind.



It really is a clever set up, and perfect for the comic book genre. He would translate very well to a "real" superhero comic.




Become the Man in the Black Hat?


> Maybe he just needs to develop a tragic flaw, or a cause to fight for, or some sort of new twist to what makes him tick. But I've always liked Hatman, and I always thought he filled an excellent role in the 'verse: he's the guy that made it, the guy groomed into being one of the best superheroes around. Maybe he's got to fall back down and climb back up in order to realize just what that meant to him. Hmm.


The character has been through a lot of rough times lately during the Parody War, to the point we've already seen "Hatman: Disassembled". I think he just needs some more screen time: more heroing, a beefed up rogues gallery, etc.



But how many of the people DiDio has killed off actually stayed dead?

I agree. If the Lair Legion are the Avengers Hatty's their Cap. Always trying, usually suceeding. A good leader and the ulitimate team player.

A nice interview that does a good job explaining the role of heroes and how "fighting evil" is a communal experience. I think most good superheroes do play well with others (even Batman has his "Family" of supporting crimefighters, and Spider-Man, while I perfer him operating solo, has in 150+ issues of "Marvel Team Up" proved he's got the social skill set to partner with just about anybody). I also like the bit about heroes taking too much responsibility away from regular people (ala Kingdom Come, Civil War, and Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme mini). Hatman is a very egalitarian, optimistic character, and you do a good job illustrating that here.

A fun beginning... minus the explosive girl scout and the virus and all. Okay, so maybe I just find the idea of a Hatman/Aegis team up to be fun. Either way, I hope to see more of this one soon.