Insect Asides, Part Ten ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post

Something a bit shorter today, at least for this "Insect Asides" series! You're welcome.

One of the biggest comic book events of 1985 (and early 1986) was DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths. If you're a comic book fan, I don't think I need to tell you what that was all about, even thirty-plus years later. If you're not a comic book fan, I won't bother giving you all the details, nor even a bare-bones description of the twelve-issue plot.

What I will tell you is that a lot of superheroes, super-villains, and other notable characters from DC's 50-years-plus history died, notably the Flash and Supergirl! And DC, which used to have its characters operating in a multitude of "parallel worlds" or "alternate realities" (Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-Three, Earth-Quality, Earth-C, Earth-S, Earth-Prime...), had these various universes consolidated as history was basically re-written.

Well, after the events of Insect Man's Weird Tales #100, and the renamed Insect Man #101, in which I had finally ended the war between SKULL and Counter-SKULL, I wanted to come up with another storyline, one which would last for several issues, and would shake things up even more.

And I decided to use DC's Crisis as an inspiration. But only an inspiration, of course.

Oh, I had big plans. At first, things would be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, much like Insect Man's Weirtd Tales #97 and #99 had been. As things progressed, however, the tone would become darker and darker. I was going to establish several Insect Man "universes," and each one would have its own version of Insect Man! In one "reality" -- ours -- Insect Man was Rex Mason, forty years old. In another reality, Insect Man was much older, having become a superhero in the early 1940s, rather than 1965. In another reality, the same hero was much younger, a teenager, perhaps. In yet another reality, there was an Insect Woman. I had even envisioned a parallel world where the Earth was populated by giant, sentient insects, and where human beings were small, unintelligent creatures. This world's "Insect Man" was one of these big bugs, who was gifted with the power to turn into a man! As each of these different worlds were wiped out, and all of the divergent universes began to merge, there would be a contest of sorts to determine which of these various versions of Insect Man would get to keep the name!

I believe the above illustration by Ken Carson, which has never seen publication before today, was

inspired by my original plans for what later became known as "The Funnel Effect!" Innit great?!?

(Just a little spoiler here, since none of the above stories ever saw print: It shouldn't surprise any of you to learn that our Insect Man would have ended up as the "winner" and eventual, only, remaining Insect Man.)

Not only that, but I planned a little nod to Marv Wolfman, who wrote Crisis as well as Marvel Comics' fantastic 1970s series Tomb of Dracula. When writing TOD, Wolfman would often introduce a new character, and in two or three panels would describe this person at length, to the point where we, the readers, would actually care about said character. Then, nasty ol' Drac himself would swoop down, or spring from the shadows, and kill that poor wretch whom we'd just met. Quite effective.

Therefore, in the earliest issues of my as-yet-untitled epic, I was going to keep introducing superheroes, super-villains, or innocent bystanders with lengthy captions, and then -- you guessed it -- kill 'em as the universe they lived in ceased to exist!

Yeah, yeah, yeah... Those, and even more, were my plans. My creativity was working overtime! I wanted to do this lengthy Insect Man story, which I eventually christened "The Funnel Effect." I also wanted to do a mini-series (to be drawn by W.W. Bird) called Mr. Secret, telling of the all-new adventures of a very different Greg Nile. I even planned a Mr. Secret spin-off series featuring a brand new character, a private detective named "Shamus" O'Shaughnessy! And while I was writing all of these, Frank Hunt and Holly Basiner were going to publish a Scythe mini-series, and various writers and artists would contribute their own creations to the new version of Insect Man's Weird Tales.

All these plans resulted in my writing the following blurb for Insect Man #103:

Yep, I was using that damned "Thanks for your time" line even then!

As for what happened to all these magnificent plans... well... See you next Wednesday!

Thanks for your time.

Insect Man, Insect Man's Weird Tales, and all related characters and titles are copyright © Paul B. Howley.