FLASH versus RAG DOLL
Countdown To Crisis! (DC)
Where: Justice League of America #196 When: November 1981 Why: Gerry Conway How: George Perez & Romeo Tanghal
The Story So Far...
In an effort to destroy his nemesis Superman, Ultra-Humanite forms a Secret Society of Super-Villains across two worlds. His goal: to orchestrate the capture of ten key heroes who will upset the balance of worlds - resulting in the orchestrated destruction of his own!
Earth-1 is home to a Justice League of America led by the youthful Superman, while Earth-2 boasts seasoned veterans of the Justice Society and a matured Superman. Despite a meeting between the heroes of two worlds, they are blissfully unaware of the forces plotting against them!
The Society's efforts have already led to the capture of Earth-1's Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Batman and Earth-2's Hawkman and Hourman! Now the wicked Rag Doll, and recently unretired Monocle, set their sights on Earth-2's Flash with the world only 40% away from cosmic annihilation!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Flash 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Flash 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Flash 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: Rag Doll 6 (Generator)
Agility: Rag Doll 6 (Rubber)
Fighting: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Rag Doll 2 (Projectiles)
Total: Flash 26 (Metahuman)
As the golden age Flash: Jay Garrick was the fastest man on Earth-2! Exposure to strange vapors unlocked the speedster's unique powers, later linked with the same esoteric Speed Force that fuels Barry Allen and Wally West!
How do you beat a guy who can move faster than you can see? A lot of villains have tried, but few methods have been as unusual as Rag Doll's!
If you've ever had a friend who was double-jointed, you've seen first-hand how a person can bend fingers and limbs the wrong way. In the case of Rag Doll: Peter Merkel was born triple-jointed -- allowing him to twist and contort his every joint into bizarre and impossible configurations!
Most notably: Rag Doll can compact his body into impossibly tight spaces. With such phenomenal natural pliability has also come a super-human quality to absorb impacts! The flow of his flexible limbs isn't super-fast, but he's been shown to react quick enough to twist between the flight path of gunfire!
Rag Doll's known to carry guns himself, and even though The Flash is faster than any speeding bullet, he can occasionally be caught by surprise! We saw Sandman use powers and terrain to chin-check Flash in 2004's JSA #64.
Rag Doll can exploit any nook or cranny in a given environment, allowing him to hide in plain sight and launch attacks on unsuspecting victims. He may look like a goofy child's toy, but it turns out Rag Doll is actually quite deadly!
The Tape: Flash Ranking: Flash (#143)
Where: Justice League of America #196 When: November 1981 Why: Gerry Conway How: George Perez & Romeo Tanghal
The Story So Far...
In an effort to destroy his nemesis Superman, Ultra-Humanite forms a Secret Society of Super-Villains across two worlds. His goal: to orchestrate the capture of ten key heroes who will upset the balance of worlds - resulting in the orchestrated destruction of his own!
Earth-1 is home to a Justice League of America led by the youthful Superman, while Earth-2 boasts seasoned veterans of the Justice Society and a matured Superman. Despite a meeting between the heroes of two worlds, they are blissfully unaware of the forces plotting against them!
The Society's efforts have already led to the capture of Earth-1's Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Batman and Earth-2's Hawkman and Hourman! Now the wicked Rag Doll, and recently unretired Monocle, set their sights on Earth-2's Flash with the world only 40% away from cosmic annihilation!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Flash 3 (Athlete)Intelligence: Flash 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Flash 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: Rag Doll 6 (Generator)
Agility: Rag Doll 6 (Rubber)
Fighting: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Rag Doll 2 (Projectiles)
Total: Flash 26 (Metahuman)
As the golden age Flash: Jay Garrick was the fastest man on Earth-2! Exposure to strange vapors unlocked the speedster's unique powers, later linked with the same esoteric Speed Force that fuels Barry Allen and Wally West!
How do you beat a guy who can move faster than you can see? A lot of villains have tried, but few methods have been as unusual as Rag Doll's!
If you've ever had a friend who was double-jointed, you've seen first-hand how a person can bend fingers and limbs the wrong way. In the case of Rag Doll: Peter Merkel was born triple-jointed -- allowing him to twist and contort his every joint into bizarre and impossible configurations!
Most notably: Rag Doll can compact his body into impossibly tight spaces. With such phenomenal natural pliability has also come a super-human quality to absorb impacts! The flow of his flexible limbs isn't super-fast, but he's been shown to react quick enough to twist between the flight path of gunfire!
Rag Doll's known to carry guns himself, and even though The Flash is faster than any speeding bullet, he can occasionally be caught by surprise! We saw Sandman use powers and terrain to chin-check Flash in 2004's JSA #64.
Rag Doll can exploit any nook or cranny in a given environment, allowing him to hide in plain sight and launch attacks on unsuspecting victims. He may look like a goofy child's toy, but it turns out Rag Doll is actually quite deadly!
The Tape: Flash Ranking: Flash (#143)
What Went Down...
A red & blue streak blazes a trail along a Keystone City dock at dusk. The Flash racing to meet an anonymous police tipster with information about Rag Doll!
Hidden between wooden crates, and obscured by hat and coat, the informant points Flash in the direction of a ship: The Lazy Sue. The speedster leaves with thanks in the blink of an eye -- never noticing the villainous Monocle!
Hidden between wooden crates, and obscured by hat and coat, the informant points Flash in the direction of a ship: The Lazy Sue. The speedster leaves with thanks in the blink of an eye -- never noticing the villainous Monocle!
It only takes a few more beats for Flash to have scoured the entire vessel and come up empty -- or so he thinks!..
It soon dawns on The Flash that his old enemy Rag Doll can hide in smaller spaces than any ordinary man! The realization comes with seconds to spare as the folded Rag Doll leaves his hiding place in a ventilation cowl and opens fire!
Flash reacts with super-human speed, blurring out of the line of fire and towards the protruding tube! He returns fire with a knife-edged chop thrown at speeds high enough to cut right through the rusting metal structure!
Rag Doll manages to escape injury and makes a leap for the cargo hold! The hero estimates the plunge at a leg breaking forty feet, but soon remembers the "rubber-jointed freak" won't suffer a scratch from the fall!
To avoid injury himself, Flash swings his hands fast enough to create two focused jets of downforce that glide him safely to the level below.
Before the speedster can begin his search of the hold - he spies a waiting bundle of dynamite amongst the cargo. It explodes -- launching the unprepared hero into the air with a devastating blast!
The Flash crashes back down to the hold with his helmet clanging beside him! The explosion leaves the hero unconscious as Rag Doll stands unscathed over his nemesis, gloating about his powers of resilience in victory!
The Hammer...
It was a plan that worked to perfection: Monocle lures The Flash to the trap - Rag Doll blows it up! Eloquent in its simplicity, and devastatingly effective at scratching one of the major heroes off The Secret Society of Super-Villain's hit list of two worlds!
This was part of the annual crossover between Earth-1's Justice League of America and the Justice Society of Earth-2. Ultra-Humanite is the mastermind, plotting to surgically remove key heroes in the hopes of creating a cosmic imbalance that will destroy his world. If you know anything about the Ultra-Humanite: you know he won't mind relocating!
There are a lot of fun villains in this one that've been slightly forgotten, or just overlooked. A recent spotlight in Hero of the Week got me thinking more about the original comic book Rag Doll, who hasn't featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths yet. I figured I'd pull this issue off my desk and take a closer look.
It's a nice quick showcase of what makes Rag Doll work as a functioning high-concept super-villain. He's hiding in the shadows right under the hero's nose, then he strikes with total impunity - unafraid of the shock of an explosion!
It's a good transposing of the old children's dolls that always seem to survive a plane crash or similar human crisis. I'm in favour of updating the design of the character to enhance the creepiness, but there is a charm to such a ridiculous visual. If blowing up Flash wasn't bad enough for you, he robbed a bank with guns blazing in the prior issue. A nice subversion of an innocent image.
Now that we've seen the original Pete Merkel in action, we'll have to find time to get Junior on the books. The 2005 Simone/Eaglesham creation reinvented the concept by cranking up the creepy weirdness, and doubling-down on the body horror of surgically acquired triple-joints. A nice updated, made all the more appreciated by keeping the original in tact. In fact, papa Doll hates his son!
This was part of the annual crossover between Earth-1's Justice League of America and the Justice Society of Earth-2. Ultra-Humanite is the mastermind, plotting to surgically remove key heroes in the hopes of creating a cosmic imbalance that will destroy his world. If you know anything about the Ultra-Humanite: you know he won't mind relocating!
There are a lot of fun villains in this one that've been slightly forgotten, or just overlooked. A recent spotlight in Hero of the Week got me thinking more about the original comic book Rag Doll, who hasn't featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths yet. I figured I'd pull this issue off my desk and take a closer look.
It's a nice quick showcase of what makes Rag Doll work as a functioning high-concept super-villain. He's hiding in the shadows right under the hero's nose, then he strikes with total impunity - unafraid of the shock of an explosion!
It's a good transposing of the old children's dolls that always seem to survive a plane crash or similar human crisis. I'm in favour of updating the design of the character to enhance the creepiness, but there is a charm to such a ridiculous visual. If blowing up Flash wasn't bad enough for you, he robbed a bank with guns blazing in the prior issue. A nice subversion of an innocent image.
Now that we've seen the original Pete Merkel in action, we'll have to find time to get Junior on the books. The 2005 Simone/Eaglesham creation reinvented the concept by cranking up the creepy weirdness, and doubling-down on the body horror of surgically acquired triple-joints. A nice updated, made all the more appreciated by keeping the original in tact. In fact, papa Doll hates his son!
Not such a great showcase for Jay Garrick, who's played a little too absent minded for my taste. All part of moving the three-issue story along with enough gravitas to threaten A-list assemblies from two worlds.
The tradition of the JLA/JSA meet-up essentially starts with 1963's Justice League of America #21. It became a regular staple of the seventies and early eighties, before it kinda became redundant once Crisis on Infinite Earths consolidated all properties in one continuum.
Justice League of America #196 is titled the "Countdown to Crisis". Before there was a Crisis on Infinite Earths, there were crises on multiple Earths.
I've always been of two minds about the idea. It's obviously a lot of fun to have two generations of heroes meet. Nice that the tradition ensures it's going to happen sooner than later. I just kinda prefer that they're all living on the same world. It loses a little bit of the sense of importance, but it also never gets silly as the years go by. It's also nice to have a DCU populated with all these great characters! When Jay Garrick was a recurring part of The Flash's world, that was great! When he was having his own adventures in JSA - even better!
If you want to cross between time and space, you can do it by picking yourself up a collected edition via Amazon! Today's story can be found in its three-issue entirety in Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume 6. If you shop with the link provided, you help support our Secret Earth that hosts The Comic Book Fight Club!
You can find more featured fights and superhero smackdown by diving into the Secret Archive! There you'll find the many Earths of DC, Marvel, and beyond! Be sure to follow links throughout this post to discover more wonders relevant to your favourite topics!
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Winner: Rag Doll (w/ Monocle)
#317 (new) Rag Doll
#322 (-179) Flash (Jay Garrick)
#545 (new) Monocle [+1 assist]
#317 (new) Rag Doll
#322 (-179) Flash (Jay Garrick)
#545 (new) Monocle [+1 assist]
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