All superheroes are a little weird – weird superheroes. They come from different planets, or they’re mutants, or perhaps they gained their abilities through some freak accident. Strange, stranger, and strangest none of them from the Atom to Wonder Woman is even borderline normal. Then there are those superheroes that sound like they were devised when someone lost a bet, or the writer was very, very bored or maybe drunk.
1.
Sabu – Left Jupiter for some really good Indian Food
Sabu is a very important character in the Chacha Chaudhary comics created in India for the Hindi magazine Lotpot. The story and characters are followed by young and old and features a frail old man who solves major crimes and problems created by ultra nasty bad guys. He wouldn’t be safe against these fearsome foes without the help of a giant from Jupiter. Sabu arrived on Earth circa 1970 and quickly developed a taste for Chacha Chaudhary’s wife’s delicious paratha and halwa. Sabu is the muscle guy in all Chacha’s daring deeds, but the payoff from him is pretty steep as the alien can scarf down 108 chapaties along with 12 kilos of halwa, washed down with 20 liters of lassi in one setting.
2.
Matter – Eater Lad
Say this out loud without laughing we dare you. The true name of Matter-Eater Lad is Tenzil Kem and he’s got the ability to eat matter in any form. Hailing from planet Bismoll this strong stomached wonder first appeared in Adventure Comics as part of the DC Universe. From his story line we find that all inhabits of the planet Bismoll developed their remarkable constitutions when the food on their world became inedible. If you wondered about the fact that Bismoll sounds a lot like Pepto-Bismoll the tummy medicine we’re sure it’s just a coincidence.
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3.
Arm Fall Off Boy
Another DC Comics superhero that sounds as if someone was out of ideas and in a hurry is Arm Fall Off Boy. The back story of this DC Comics good guy is he’s from the 30th century and has the super power of being able to detach his own limbs. The character claims he got the ability from being a little too careless around anti-gravity, but are we really going to trust someone who keeps falling apart like that?
4.
Bouncing Boy
Perhaps the writers at DC Comics were just under too much pressure. This character seems more likely to have been produced during a late night drinking session. Young Chuck Taine has the power to inflate like a giant beach ball at will. Then he bounces around knocking over the bad guys. He got his ability when he drank a super plastic formula he mistook for a cola. He showed up first in the May 1961 edition of Action Comics, but he’s popularity soon deflated.
5.
Superdupont
Superdupont is a fairly popular comic in France, but he is more or less a sarcastic version of a superhero. For Americans if they can envision Archie Bucker in a hero costume going after all those foes he believes attack the U.S. you pretty much understand the spirit behind Superdupont. Created in 1972 this comic plays with the image of both Superman and the paranoia of certain French national attitudes and their fear of foreign influences. Wearing charentaises, a striped jersey, and beret he fights a secret organization known only as the Anti-France. He can fly and then box criminals into submission on arrival, but he is held back by his personal problems like being a chauvinist and a little dense.
6.
Captain Koala
He’s a koala and he fights spies. If that wasn’t enough to make this marsupial weird, he also talks. He has no superpowers he just does his thing as a tiny talking little secret agent. Because no one would find anything out of place when he shows up. You see a koala roving around the city ordering up some shrimp and a cold one all the time. Right?
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7.
Yukk the dog
This unfortunately named canine is the sidekick of Mighty Man. Yukk was comic relief in that this poor long suffering pup had to wear a mini-doghouse on his head because he was so ugly he would scare the innocent. In fact, the ugly was his power since he could subdue the evil ones just by taking off his headgear and letting them take a gander at his major case of ugly face.
8.
The Color Kid
This one is just sad. Ulu Vakk is stuck with the lame power of being able to change the color of things. Oh sure, he can change yellow things to green and help out the Green Lantern. He can help someone decorate too, but this isn’t going to do much against super villains. He gained this ‘superpower’ when while assisting a scientist he was struck by a multi-colored light from another dimension. As if the writers of his fate hadn’t been cruel enough he was briefly known as Color Queen in 1980’s when he was exposed to Granderian Gender Reversal Germs.
9.
Aguanus
This comic from Indonesia sounds and looks suspiciously like the American comic superhero Aquaman. When his spaceship is damaged alien Dhanus crashes his spaceship into the Earth’s oceans. With his copyright infringing abilities of surviving in the ocean, and breathing underwater he works to save the world from destruction. He has the unique ability of firing a rainbow hued energy bolt from his alien techno belt. So fierce!
10.
Dream from Sandman
Lastly there is Dream, a character who is designed to be weird, but in a good way. Created by Neil Gaiman Dream is the fictional protagonist of DC Comic Vertigo graphic novel series. The Sandman series is unique in comic history and Dream one of the aspects of “The Endless” is a difficult character to explain. Living in a castle in an ever changing landscape Dream populates his universe with speaking characters. His realm is filled with any and all creatures that are at the time lost in dreaming.
Weird is of course a matter of opinion as one man’s strange is another man’s true hero.
Written by Kacey Stapleton – Copyrighted © www.weirdworm.net
