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[bryant]

What I'm thinking is this: in the DC Universe, shapeshifting is a trait associated with good guys. Often tricksters, but good guys. Plastic Man, Elongated Man, Metamorpho, Beast Boy, so forth and so on. Meanwhile, over in the Marvel Universe, shapeshifting is sinister and dangerous. Mystique, Loki, Warlock (good guy but horrendously dangerous), and of course the Skrull.

Reed Richards kind of undermines this but I think there may be a general trend here.

Comments

[kiplet.livejournal.com]

Reed is frequently the Brainiac Who Is Misled By Not Listening To His Gut, for what it's worth.

[sylvanstargazer.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a couple, certainly. Wolfsbane and Mercury for example, and if the qualification is just body manipulation Mr. Fantastic and Multiple Man probably qualify too.

Not sure the pool is quite big enough to draw conclusions from, though shapeshifting does seem to be one of the more alien powers (as opposed to, say, super strength.)

[kodi]

The Martian Manhunter also belongs in the DC / good guy list.

[carneggy.livejournal.com]

Badguy DC shapeshifters: All the various Clayfaces; Everyman; all the various White Martians. On the good side: Metal Men.

[bryant]

True. You've got that superscience risk (see also Warlock), and of course Reed is anything but a trickster.

[bryant]

Clayface is a good counter example.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Madame Rouge is the biggest name evil shapeshifter I can come up with in DC. Also Chameleon Chief from the Legion of Super Villains (who is balanced out of course by Chameleon Boy). On the Marvel side you've got Dire Wraiths and Space Phantoms. More whole races of shapeshifting evildooers!

Are you distinguishing at all between shapeshifting and body alteration/elongation? I wouldn't count Reed Richards, Super Skrull or Elongated Man as true shapeshifters.

Overall though, very interesting observation. I wonder if it's a conscious thing among 2nd and 3rd generation writers to keep up the traditions laid out in the 60 or if it's just happenstance.

[bryant]

If we eliminate elongation, and we probably should, it takes care of the Reed Richards counter-example. So that works.

I have a stone cold comic book fan pal at work. I'll have to ask him about this.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

And of course there's a few Skrulls Gone Good - Xavin in Runaways, and I forget her name but She-Hulk's Partner in the Peter David She-Hulk run, but that's not truly a counter-example.

Morph the mutant is - he was mostly in Exiles. There's also some limited shapeshifters like Rahne, and I dunno if you'd count things like The Hulk.

The Wonder Twins are another DC good guy example, as cheesy as they are.

And of course there's the Dr. Strange/Scarlet Witch types that can do whatever the writers want them to do, but that's another issue. And similar bad guys like Legion.

I think I agree with your trend.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

This is probably reaching. But synthesizing the difference with the period -- DC's genesis was a friendly alien, while Marvel's signature team was given grotesque powers by exposure to Rays Beyond. If shapeshifting is more commonly associated with aliens, then perhaps the fact that there's a stronger current of xenophilia in DC might partly account for it?

though, oddly, DC and not Marvel was around during our whole Death From The Skies! era in the 50s, so perhaps this doesn't mean anything.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Martian Manhunter first appeared in 1955, Plastic man in '41 (although he wasn't a DC property at the time). The others on both sides of the aisle are products of the 60s.

[the-gadgetman.livejournal.com]

Well, the Durlans in the DC universe are a race of shapeshifters and are generally not considered a friendly/trustworthy people, although there are certainly heros from that race (Chameleon Boy in the Legion).

[bryant]

The Durlans are the best counter-example yet, darn it.

[bryant]

There's a seed of something in here about DC's attitude towards science vs. Marvel's attitude towards science.

[head58.livejournal.com]

But I think the fear/distrust of Durlans is a relatively modern invention (modern=Invasion! from 1989). I don't remember seeing any of that in the classic stuff from the 60s and 70s.

[chaoticmoth.livejournal.com]

And shouldn't Loki be one of the good guys? ;)