Thursday, January 16, 2025

Marvel’s One-Punch Man

Inspired by Tim's new Tales from the Vault series I've decided to go through my issues and trades and talk about some of the interesting stuff I have. I thought I'd start with one I'd say a lot of folks have never heard of Fight Man #1. I hadn't heard of it until I found a copy in the dollar boxes of my old comic shop.

Fight Man is a one-shot published by Marvel in 1993. It features art and writing from Evan Dorkin, with inking by Pam Eklund, and color by Su McTeigue. You might recognize Dorkin from his Milk and Cheese series.

The titular Fight-Man can fly, and has super strength, invulnerability, energy projection, and super breath. His invulnerability isn't absolute. He does get knocked out at one point, but its because has a building dropped on him, but it doesn't seem to actually hurt him. While this combined with his looks might make you think Superman, he has none of Clark's redeeming social traits. Fight-Man is childish and says things like "I can't hear you" and plugs his ears when having conversations he doesn't want to be a part of. He doesn't take anyone seriously, his actions have lead to the deaths of 15 young sidekicks, and is hated by pretty much everyone in his home of Delta City. While he's vocal and has an "I'll fight anyone" attitude, he's secretly a coward. He begs his wife and her lawyer to not sue him like a crybaby.

In the story Fight-Man is broke and lives with his parents. He has no sponsors or merch and makes a living by selling supervillain memorabilia. To top it off he is being sued by everyone in Delta City, including his ex-wife. Various teams of villains attack him, until it's finally revealed that his arch rival, the Hooded Eye (who's been missing for at least a decade) has hired Fight Man's enemies and eventually the entire city to take him out. After being captured, it is revealed that this Hooded Eye is actually his heavily scarred (and very much alive) first sidekick, Kid Fight-Man. He escapes the trap and takes out the hordes of angry citizens and villains with ease. After the fight ends, the police arrive, but it isn't to arrest the villains that attacked him, it's to arrest Fight-Man for the many times he's endangered minors.

Though published by Marvel in the early 90's this story takes place in it's own continuity. This wasn't Dorkin's original plan though. The hordes of villains coming after Fight-Man were supposed to be D-listers like Stiltman and Shocker. My guess is the editors thought it was two silly for the edgy books of the time. Surprisingly, ten years later Fight- Man would make the transition to the 616, appearing in Agent X issues 10 and 11, written by Dorkin. I've not read the issues but it takes place after Fight-Man gets out of prison.

You might have noticed that this story mirrors Batman: Under the Red Hood. Kid sidekick is killed and returns years later as a villain wearing the guise of the man that killed him. I'm sure this trope has been used before, but I thought this was a fun coincidence.

This book is goofy hero satire in the vein of something like The Tick. The art is comical and the absurdity very entertaining. Fight-Man is such a man baby that it's ridiculous. He thinks he can punch his way through life. However, he's also nominally a hero. Foe example he can't punch a woman because of the "hero code." He does get around this with the help of a sharpie and cognitive dissonance.

If you run a supers game, you could have a great session involving your players trying to stop Fight-Man (or a Fight-Man-esque character) from causing too much collateral damage, or at least helping citizens caught in the crossfire. If you're running a Carbide City game, the stats for Adam the First Man would be appropriate for Fight-Man.  

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