Tuesday, February 21, 2006

BHM 21: Dr. Mist

The African mystic Dr. Mist was the leader of the Global Guardians (see our profile on Impala). He was originally Nommo (later, "Maltis"), a sorceror from the ancient empire of Kor. He was basically a black Ibis, without the stick. In 1988, some lunatic writer decided to "reveal" that Dr. Mist had been carrying out a plan to breed a race of magic-wielding "Homo Magi" (*sigh*) to eventually produce his perfect bride-to-be. The result?


Zatanna.


BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

Oh, oh, my god, I think--I think I've ruptured something! Call Dr. Scott!! I-- I can't catch my breath! Blacking out-- going out like mi amor, Vibe... Paco, I'm coming to join you!

Anyway, Nommo actually adopted his Dr. Mist identity as means for *snort* traveling in Zatanna's circles. Dude-- "traveling in Zatanna's circles'' is pretty darned easy, as far as I can tell.

Don't worry, you didn't miss the wedding; Dr. M's little plan didn't go quite as he hoped; Nommo failed to get with Zatanna. Dude! How do you fail to get with Zatanna? Dale Gunn got with Zatanna. John Constantine got with Zatanna. The frickin' Yazz probably got with Zatanna. You're a loser, Dr. Mist .

He died in some battle, but that was only his physical form, you know. Magical crap. Came back again, renamed himself "Maltis", and founded Primal Force, which is probably the only punishment God could come up with worse than Hell (check out that link and look for some suprising gueststars). Primal Force killed him again, of course; it had the same effect on several readers.

Oh, and my theory on why Zee wouldn't get with Nommo? Well, let's just say there's a reason he went on to invent this.
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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/21/2006 9:02 PM

    Oh man...will you look at that costume. Red, green, white, yellow...and bare thighs! Yeah it's supposed to look kind of ancient and mystical, but it just looks like a Christmas candy to me. Not as bad as Wonder Man's red/green/yellow atrocity from West Coast Avengers though. That's in a league of it's own. Even drawn by George Perez in Crisis this costume was hard to take serious. Maybe Misty should have taken a fashion tip from Bloodwynd...the whole less is more thing. And as for the character himself...well, as much as I'd like to see a Global Guardians revival, I'd pass on Dr.Mist this time around.

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  2. Scipio2/21/2006 10:07 PM

    Bare thighs? Well, duh--- HE'S BLACK.

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  3. Axel M. Gruner2/22/2006 3:36 AM

    Shades of Wold Newton! I just realised that they took parts of his origin straight from Henry Rider Haggard, that dude who wrote Alan Quatermain and other colonial fantasies in the 19th century.

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  4. Anonymous2/22/2006 9:47 AM

    Doc Mist was very wise to ditch that horrendous get-up and wear a black suit and tie in his latter-day appearances.

    This character could be really cool. Why do writers keep killing him?

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  5. Axel M. Gruner2/22/2006 11:51 AM

    Why do writers keep killing him?

    Why do all the other Sorcerors Supreme and Lords of Order allways have to be white?

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  6. Anonymous2/23/2006 12:20 AM

    Actually, the fact that Z was the result of Mist's breeding program could very well explain her part of the Dale Gunn phenomenon - she was *programmed* to find black dudes of a certain build the most attractive. Mist, of course, didn't stake his claim until it was too late... and she'd met Dale, who had a marginally better fashion sense.

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  7. Anonymous6/05/2008 2:51 AM

    So the Dr. Mist product cures all skin problems from odor to acne?

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