Sometimes a good comic can make a big mistake. In Manhunter, that mistake was killing off the Monocle.
This is because the Monocle was a pretty goddamned great supervillain. First off, he has exactly the right amount of tragedy in his origin to be one of your more compelling supervillains. He was an honest businessman and a skilled scientist who got screwed over by greedy bankers (see? See? He’s even more relevant now) and then went the overreacting-because-he’s-a-villain route and started murdering them until Hawkman (who, as a good conservative, of course has to protect Big Bidness from the dangers of the little guy) stopped him.
On top of the great origin story, though, the Monocle brings more to the table. First off, he looks really cool. Full 40’s-style evening dress, complete with opera cloak? Bad. Ass. (Consider how many super-characters wear opera cloaks. It’s Monocle and the Phantom Stranger. That’s pretty rarified company.) And that’s before you get to the Monocle’s monocle, which could shoot lasers and strobe blinding lights and just generally be wicked cool.
Secondly, it’s not just that the Monocle looks classy – it’s that he is classy. When the Ultra-Humanite recruited him for the Earth-2 side of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, the Monocle was in retirement, having stolen quite a lot of money and not needing to be a criminal any more; it took the promise of humiliating Hawkman to lure him back. (This is because Hawkman is a dick and everybody hates him.)
So, the Monocle is cool. What happened? Well, first Brad Meltzer used him for the first time in eons for a brief walk-on in Identity Crisis, where he basically said the Monocle was not all that and a bag of chips. This was hardly the worst thing about Identity Crisis but certainly proof that the comic was flawed on every possible level rather than just being an otherwise okay comic with a big event that was a bad idea. But then, after that, Monocle was used in Manhunter, where he was A) depicted as a whiny coward and B) shot through the eye (and monocle) by Manhunter and killed instantly.
LAME. That moment was the low point of the entire run of Manhunter, an otherwise good comic.
There reasonably has to be a son or twin brother or something who can pick up the Monocle’s monocle and carry on. Good villain concepts are rare. Why waste one?
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Even better: someone collected The Monocle’s fresh corpse and revived it via cybernetics. Now a large chunk of his brain and, yes, his eye (which just looks like a monocle, the difference being he can’t remove it) are cybernetic. As with anyone who goes through traumatic brain damage, he underwent a personality shift that erases the BS whiny aspect from Manhunter. He’s now back to his old, classy self, but beholden to the agent or agency that saved him.
Also, this is a good excuse to give him even cooler monocle powers, like being able to tell if someone’s lying by performing a shallow CAT-scan on their brain (scientists are really doing this, with helmets).
“his was hardly the worst thing about Identity Crisis but certainly proof that the comic was flawed on every possible level rather than just being an otherwise okay comic with a big event that was a bad idea.”
Win!
he was one of the last super-pimps.
According to the Who’s Who page, he didn’t steal a fortune and retire; he actually used his inventions to make a fortune before retiring, like scientists in superhero comics never do.
You could also just say that the Monocle that Manhunter killed was a phony, trying to use the name for villain street cred.
I think Gentleman Ghost wears an opera cloak too.
He has a monocle. HE HAS A MONOCLE! When has a monocole never been cool? Fuck DC Comics for killing this guy off. Just looking at this guy makes me want to read about him.
I also like Chris’ idea for bringing him back, a son or twin brother sounds to soap opera to me. It might be an interesting twist if you made it a daughter, but its harder for women to pull off the monocle look.
But everyone LOVES to hate Hawkman!
…God, fucking Hawkman.
Speaking of him, Gentleman Ghost also wears a monocle. What is it about Hawkman that attracts monocle-wearing supervillains?
Possibly because Hawkman is a savage who goes around shirtless and waving a mace? So to have a good villain, you need someone who’s the opposite of that–thus, you need someone who’s classy and a snappy dresser.
Coming soon: Black Lantern Monocle.
Possibly because Hawkman is a savage who goes around shirtless and waving a mace? So to have a good villain, you need someone who’s the opposite of that–thus, you need someone who’s classy and a snappy dresser.
Plus there’s the class reversals. The Monocle was a small businessman who dresses up as an aristocratic badass. His Hawkman was a wealthy scholar who dressed up as a pre-capitalist barbarian badass. Their super-identities were the reverse of their true standings.
PARALLELS! The mark of fine literature. Also, how often do we get to see men with maces and men with monocles in the same story? Very rarely. Thus, we must treasure those few chances we get. Hopefully the Monocle will return…
The Monocle is a top tier villain name, period.
Seriously. The *BLANK* is a fairly standard super-guy naming format, and coming up with a good noun to go with it can sometimes go wrong. (The Nazi, for instance, would make a TERRIBLE villain name, despite the commonplace of super-villainous Nazis.) The Monocle? That’s the exact right feel. It’s an object with a specific feel (which is good), it’s a focus for his character design (also good), and it’s something that can, in comics, be used as a cool weapon (also good).
DC Comics: For SHAME. The Monocle should be a bigger name villain than Sinestro on name alone.
Also: Doesn’t Martian Manhunter also wear an opera cloak, or something like it? Or at least, he used to, before OYL crapped up the best elements of his design when all they needed to do was give him pants.
This guy should go to Gotham. Sure, he’d only be a second tier rogue there, but they’d APPRECIATE him more.
I wouldn’t mind seeing The Monocle brought back to life in some sort of Devil’s Bargain. In part, because he would make an excellent middle management henchman, and in part because I want to see him with a Succubus sidekick.
They could do him up like the Penguin, putting him in charge of a city-wide crime syndicate of some sort. Classic evil mastermind. I might actually start reading Hawkman if I could read this guy.
He seems like he should have fought Starman. Something about his design has the same resonance as villains like The Shade and Rag Doll.
If they bring him back and have him go back to doing his thing (killing bankers), he’d be an instant hero, with his own series and plenty of cross-overs. Maybe a sidekick, too. Either Tie-Tack Boy or the Cuff-link Kid.
+1
It would be hard to convince people that somebody who kills greedy businessmen is a villain
but yeah bring him back as a sort of anti-capitalist anti-hero
They ought to have him off some corrupt business men and then Oliver Queen be in the position to stop him. Then we can see Green Arrow being conflicted about stopping someone he is obviously sympathetic towards.
I agree with you all, the Monacle is a cool concept with a pretty good costume. Would mess with the suit a little, but that’s me.
Identity Crisis is my only exposure to The Monocle, and I thought he was pretty cool in that. Am I the only one?
Zen: I aim to please.
Weird. There was a Monocle back in the early days of the Fantastic Four too.
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/monocleff.htm
What are the odds?
I first read this as:
“Hawkman (who, as a good conservative, of course has to protect Big Birdness…”
Yeah, Gentleman Ghost is another badass villain with an opera cape and monocle (as well as being a fellow Hawkman villain). But as much as I love those accoutrements, the best part of GG has to be his weakness: people of royal blood. How awesome is that?
Leave him dead. One of his kids could take up the eyepiece, but modernize it with some Psycho-Pirate-esque abilities.
Then dress in scruffy black, network with their henchmen via a Livejournal community, and announce themselves to the world as the Emonocle.
What, really?
Ima have to read up on that.
Skemono- Also, Virgins. He can’t do diddly to virgins.
Yeah, Wikipedia mentions that, too. Only seems to have been used against teenage heroes, though. I think this is rife with opportunity to embarrass certain superheroes by revealing they’re virgins.
It’s silly that that would embarrassing (my opinion) but I also like the Monocle. He made a piece of glass into a weapon. That’s some kidn of genius. Not an engine or an experimental battlesuit or something easy: a piece of glass. It could be so easy to conceal and hard to stop.
Interestingly, I just ran into Monocle’s clone over in Marvel. I’m reading the Power Man and Iron Fist vol 2… and there’s a baddie called Goldeneye.
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/goldeye.htm
Apart from the potential “Black Lanterning” surely the best way to bring him back is to have a retro-active Superboy Prime Punch do it.
Or have George Lucas retell that Manhunter story and change the gun to a water pistol or something.
[…] teamup loses a lot of its cachet.) In this story, he beat up Batman. Batman. (In the same issue the Monocle beat up Hawkman, which was awesome.) And the way Signalman beat Batman was brilliant: he hypnotized […]