Saturday, December 13, 2014

WOLD NEWTON DAY "WHAT IF?" - WONDER WOMAN & DOC SAVAGE


Today marks the anniversary of the meteorite crash near Wold Newton in 1795.....

THE WOLD NEWTON METEORITE


A group of passing witnesseses were bathed in the meteorite's radiation and that led to the creation of some of the greatest heroes (and villains) in the fictional universe.
PHILIP JOSE FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE

Many of those same characters have televersions in Earth Prime-Time, but the Toobworld Dynamic should never be confused with the Wold Newton Universe.

This week, Inner Toob will be celebrating the TV version of Wonder Woman, so to put my yearly Toobworld spin on the WNU I looked through the "family tree" for a character who might have crossed paths with Princess Diana off-screen.

The first season of the series took place during WWII and I'm sure there are a few Wold Newton heroes from that era who could have teamed up with Wonder Woman. But she's far older than that, an Immortal from the Age of Legend. We might even suggest an encounter with some long-past character, perhaps even Hadon of ancient Opar. TV could always use a sword-flashing hero full of blood and thunder.

But there's one Wold Newton colossus whom I've always wanted to see get the TV treatment: Clark Savage, Jr. also known as Doc Savage.  And I think the Man of Bronze would have been the perfect candidate to work with Wonder Woman.

His globe-spanning adventures may very well have brought Doc to Themyscira - Paradise Island, the Amazon home in the Bermuda Triangle. But to make it more interesting, perhaps Wonder Woman could have met Clark at an earlier stage in his life, perhaps even before he was given to adepts for training at the age of fourteen months.

In 1901, most likely in November of that year, Clark Savage was born on the schooner Orion to Arronaxe Larsen and Clark Savage, Sr. This occurred off the coast of Andros Island, geographically not that far from Themyscira. Perhaps there is more to this story than had ever been revealed, which would be what the Amazons wanted in order to protect their hidden work. But I would think such a birth would almost invite some sort of calamity in which Wonder Woman could save the day.

Lester Dent, who wrote the original stories about Doc Savage, set up a scenario in which a grown-up Clark found himself back in the Bermuda Triangle.  Here's the synopsis of "The Sargasso Ogre" from Wikipedia:

"Trapped in the Bermuda Triangle, Doc and friends end up on a vast armada ofrotting ships battling a gang of vicious criminals."  Perhaps there's a period of time in that story in which Doc could have met Diana - together again for the first time, in a way.....
 
What if Doc Savage met Wonder Woman
(Adam & Eve as the stand-ins)
 
It would have to fall under fanfic since Lynda Carter, beautiful as she still is, no longer can match her earlier luminance for Diana's immortal features. And then there's the fact that Doc Savage - even as a baby - has yet to become a part of the Toobworld Dynamic.

And that's not likely to happen. He's already been in a movie and a new adaptation is in development. If it is made and is successful, that would probably put the kibosh on a TV version. Of course maybe an ancillary TV show could be made in which Doc Savage might guest star to kick off the series. We've seen it happen before with Nick Fury and 'Agents Of SHIELD' and Conner MacLeod on 'Highlander'.

I suppose it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, in the Comic Book Universe. Doc Savage has teamed up with the Batman and the Spirit in the past. And it was Doc who first had an Arctic Fortress of Solitude. So with such a DC connection, some sort of team-up with Wonder Woman could have happened.

At any rate, it's just "wish-craft" on my part as a tip of the hat to perhaps the greatest contribution made by Philip Jose Farmer to the shared universe of literature.

I hope you enjoyed Wold Newton Day, which fell on the numerical sequence of 12/13/14!

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