Hugo Danner
Encyclopedia
Hugo Danner is a fictional character
, the protagonist
of the 1930 American novel
Gladiator
, by Philip Gordon Wylie
. Born in the late 19th century with superhuman
abilities via prenatal chemical experimentation, Danner tries to use his powers for good, making him a precursor of the superhero
. However, Danner grows disillusioned with his inability to find a permanent outlet for his great strength, and dies frustrated.
Apart from Wylie's novel, the character has also appeared in a feature film
and publications by Marvel Comics
and DC Comics
. Comedic actor Joe E. Brown
portrayed him in a 1938 movie adaptation of the book. Decades later the character starred in an adaptation titled "Man-God" in Marvel's black-and-white comics
-magazine
Marvel Preview
# 9 (Winter 1976). He next appeared in DC's standard color comic book
Young All-Stars
in 1988 and 1989, as the estranged father of an illegitimate son named Iron Munro
. In 2005, he returned in the comic-book miniseries
Legend, published by the DC imprint
Wildstorm
. Here Danner, in the late 1960s, fights as a U.S. Army supersoldier
in the Vietnam War
rather than as a super Legionnaire
in World War I
.
science Professor Abednego Danner searches for a way to improve the innate weaknesses
of human biology and create a new "race that doesn't know fear — because it cannot know harm". After 14 years of research he finally discovers "alkaline radicals
" that vastly improve "muscular strength and the nervous discharge of energy
". Following very successful animal testing, which yields super-strong tadpoles and a bulletproof
kitten capable of taking down cattle as prey, he injects this super-serum into the womb of his pregnant wife, Matilda. Hugo Danner is born on Christmas several months later.
His parents imbue him with a strong moral compass during his formative years and warn him never to use his great strength in anger. However, during kindergarten, Danner nearly kills the school's bully in a one-sided fight after being assaulted by the child. This event brands him as an outsider in the eyes of the other children. Because they treat him with such abhorrence, his only solace comes in the form of unleashing his powers within the Colorado wilderness (uprooting trees, throwing huge boulders, leaping to the mountain tops, etc.). This stigma eventually wears off, though, and is forgotten by the time Danner enters high school.
Danner leaves Colorado after graduating high school to attend Webster University. There, he becomes an unstoppable football star and the most popular boy in school. During the summer months, he works as a circus strong man
and even enters a fight competition for money. However, after returning to college and accidentally killing another player during a game, he quits school and becomes a sailor. A year later, his ship is trapped in France by the outbreak of World War I
in 1914.
He and a fellow American sign up with the French Foreign Legion
and find themselves on the battlements after a short training period. He eventually reveals his powers to his Legionnaire superiors, who believe him to be a devil or supernatural Native American
, and he is given free rein to roam the battlefield and kill as many German soldiers as he possibly can. Stories of "Le Colorado" (The Colorado) quickly spread from trench to trench and Danner becomes a sort of mythical hero. After a short stint in an American Legionnaire unit, Danner grows weary of war and devises a plan with an airplane:
However, the Treaty of Versailles
is signed the very day he prepares to leave, and so he is forced to abort his mission, much to his dismay. He returns to the United States and works in a number of professions — steel mill worker, bank teller, farm hand, and disarmament
lobbyist — but his unique stature among mortal men forever brings him grief. He eventually offers his services to a noted history professor preparing a Mayan
archaeological dig and travels with the group to the Yucatan Peninsula
.
During the trip, Danner wonders if the Mayans and Egyptians
had discovered the same formula as his father, "which could be poured into the veins of the slaves [who built the pyramids], making them stronger than engines". There, he works as the head steward of the hired Mayan helpers and proves himself an asset to the team. But when a mishap reveals his great strength to the professor, the elderly man suggests Danner use his father's formula to create a new race of men known as the "Sons of Dawn", who will use their powers to right the world's wrongs. The idea appeals to him at first, but Danner fears that these sons would also be hated by humanity for their superiority and treated much the same as himself. In the end, he climbs a mountain amidst an oncoming thunderstorm, and is struck dead by lightning while praying to God. The formula is lost in the resulting fire. The professor discovers his charred remains three days later and buries him among the Mayan ruins.
. He demolishes his wooden crib as a newborn, saves a man's life by lifting a two-ton supply wagon at 6 years old, and uproots entire trees at 10. He progressively grows stronger as he gets older. During his twenties, he can stop and kill a charging bull with a single punch, bend a railroad rail, lift a seventy-five millimeter howitzer cannon singlehandedly, lift a car and its driver singlehandedly, rip open a 5 feet (1.5 m) bank vault, and easily catch a falling 8,000-pound block of stone.
Danner's physical strength extends to his legs, allowing him to leap great heights and distances. At age 10 he can leap 40 feet into the air and run faster than a train. During his freshman year in college, he easily breaks a world track
record, though he actually doesn't run at his full speed. While in the service of the French Foreign Legion
in World War I
, he traverses thirty-seven miles round trip in just thirty minutes (a speed of about 148 mph); all while carrying 2,000 pounds of food, water, and ammunition for his unit. Despite his great strength, he is still susceptible to fatigue.
He first learns of his body's superior resistance to physical injury during the war. Bullets and bayonets glance off his tough skin. He believes he can even survive a plane crash. The only weaponry capable of penetrating his skin at the time are the largest artillery shells. Although, he still feels the effects of the elements, sweating under the heat of the sun and freezing during winter. Danner's only vulnerability is lightning
, which ultimately kills him.
Danner's bodily tissues have a somewhat greater density than those of an ordinary human being. Though he has an athletic build, his strength is far greater than what his frame would naturally allow. People guess him to be 155 pounds, but he actually weighs 211. During his stint as a sailor, he goes pearl diving with the natives of Cristobal
and is able to dive deeper and stay under longer because of his density.
His body can heal damaged tissue
much faster and more extensively than an ordinary human can. He collapses from exhaustion and wounds sustained from artillery shells after he goes berserk against the Germans to avenge a friend's death. When he wakes up in an army hospital, he finds "his wounds had healed without the necessity of a single stitch". Long periods of comatose sleep (up to 20 hours) and the consuming of huge meals also aid in his regenerative process.
in the 1938 film The Gladiator, which loosely adapted science-fiction drama
as a comedy
, and, among the many changes, renamed the protagonist
"Hugo Kipp". The film begins when Kipp wins a large sum of money in a contest and decides to return to college. There, he is talked into joining the football
team and fails to live up to his athletic father's legendary reputation. But after a Professor Danner (Lucien Littlefield
) injects Kipp with a serum that gives him superhuman strength, he becomes an unstoppable player and wins the heart of the self-centered quarterback
's girlfriend (June Travis
). In the end, he faces Man Mountain Dean
in a wrestling match, but the serum runs out at the last minute.
In comics, Danner first appeared in the 52-page story "Man-God", by writer Roy Thomas
and artist Tony DeZuniga
(credited as Antony DeZuniga) in Marvel Comics
' Marvel Preview
#9 (Winter 1976). Only the first half of the novel is adapted.
Danner next appeared in DC Comics
' Young All-Stars
#9-11 (Feb.-April 1988) and #28-31 (Aug.-Nov. 1989), as the estranged father of Iron Munro
, his illegitimate son. Munro was not a character or even a possibility in the original novel, where, as Danner's ailing scientist father explained, "the effect of the process is not inherited by the future generations. It must be done over each time".
In this storyline, Munro comes into possession of his father’s diary and learns of Danner's troubled life as the 20th century’s first metahuman
. After having read the diary, Munro turns to the government's secret Project M, demanding to know the location of the "Dinosaur Island
" mentioned by Danner. There he meets a person who leads him instead to Maple White Land in South America. Munro is surprised when he finds his father is alive. Danner apparently faked his death in the Yucatan and briefly returned home to have a one-night stand with his former high school sweetheart Anna Blake. The resulting union bore Munro, who took his surname from his mother's new husband (who believed the child to be his own). Danner has, by this time, succeeded in rearing the first generation of the Sons of Dawn. He later reveals to the Young-All Stars that the villain Übermensch has stolen the formula in order to create his own race of supermen.
Munro is forced to oppose his father when Danner orders the Sons of Dawn to attack a Brazilian city. The combined might of the All-Star Squadron defeats the Sons of Dawn and Danner is killed during the final battle.
Danner starred in the four-issue miniseries
Legend (April–July 2005) by writer Howard Chaykin
and artist Russ Heath
, published by the DC imprint Wildstorm
. Cover blurbs on the first two issues read, "Inspired by Philip Wylie's Novel Gladiator". The story now takes place in the second half of the 20th century, with the Vietnam War
replacing World War I
, but the story remaining for the most part intact.
co-creator Jerry Siegel
was influenced by Gladiator, Siegel did read the novel in 1932 and reviewed the book in his Science Fiction fanzine
. He and co-creator Joe Shuster
began developing Superman in 1934.
Superman as originally conceived came from an unnamed planet whose inhabitants were millions of years more evolved than humans. When they reached maturity, "the people of his race became gifted with titanic strength". Their advanced evolution and great strength accounted for Superman's superhuman abilities on earth. As Siegel described them: "When maturity was reached, he discovered he could easily: leap th of a mile; hurdle a twenty-story building...raise tremendous weights...run faster than an express train...and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!"
Siegel and Shuster compared Superman's strength and leaping abilities to those of an ant
and a grasshopper
, respectively, as did Abednego for his son. Danner also claims descent from a far-off land (Colorado) inhabited by a race of super-strong, indestructible men. In order to keep his true "experimental" origins a secret, he tells his Legionnaire
superiors, "[Colorado is a] place in America. A place that has scarcely been explored. I was born there. All the men of Colorado are born as I was born and are like me. We are very strong. We are great fighters. We cannot be wounded except by the largest shells.". Other examples of similarities include both of their biological fathers are scientists (Jor-El
and Abednego), both grow up in rural settings (Smallville and Indian Creek, Colorado), both are imbued with a strong moral compass from a young age both lift cars over their heads, and both hide their powers from the world.
Wylie threatened to sue Siegel for plagiarism in 1940 but there is no evidence he carried through with the litigation. Historian Gerard Jones
writes that, "Siegel flatly denied that Wylie's novel had influenced him in any way" although adding his own conjecture that "the timing and striking similarities ... would seem to leave no doubt of Gladiators role"
One critic noted that Danner's "creation and upbringing by a scientist father recall Doc Savage
's origins" and a "prototype for the famous scene in which the fledgling Spider-Man defeats a hulking wrestler to make money is found in Wylie's novel; Hugo's bout in the ring is similar to that in the Spider-Man
's origin story in 1962's Amazing Fantasy
#15."
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
, the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
of the 1930 American novel
Genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
Gladiator
Gladiator (novel)
Gladiator is an American science fiction novel first published in 1930 and written by Philip Wylie. The story concerns a scientist who invents an "alkaline free-radical" serum to "improve" humankind by granting the proportionate strength of an ant and the leaping ability of the grasshopper...
, by Philip Gordon Wylie
Philip Gordon Wylie
Philip Gordon Wylie was an American author.-Biography:Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, he was the son of Presbyterian minister Edmund Melville Wylie and the former Edna Edwards, a novelist, who died when Philip was five years old. His family moved to Montclair, New Jersey and he later attended...
. Born in the late 19th century with superhuman
Superhuman
Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future...
abilities via prenatal chemical experimentation, Danner tries to use his powers for good, making him a precursor of the superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
. However, Danner grows disillusioned with his inability to find a permanent outlet for his great strength, and dies frustrated.
Apart from Wylie's novel, the character has also appeared in a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
and publications by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
and DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. Comedic actor Joe E. Brown
Joe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
portrayed him in a 1938 movie adaptation of the book. Decades later the character starred in an adaptation titled "Man-God" in Marvel's black-and-white comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
-magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Marvel Preview
Marvel Preview
Marvel Preview was a magazine-sized black-and-white showcase comic book published by Curtis Magazines, an imprint of Marvel....
# 9 (Winter 1976). He next appeared in DC's standard color comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
Young All-Stars
Young All-Stars
The Young All-Stars are a team of fictional DC Comics superheroes. They were created by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, and Michael Bair, and introduced in Young All-Stars #1, dated June 1987.-Publication history:...
in 1988 and 1989, as the estranged father of an illegitimate son named Iron Munro
Iron Munro
Iron Munro is a fictional superhero, who first appeared in Shadow Comics #1 , published by Street & Smith. He is loosely based on Aarn Munro, the hero of a series of short stories written by John W. Campbell in the 1930s...
. In 2005, he returned in the comic-book miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Legend, published by the DC imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
Wildstorm
Wildstorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
. Here Danner, in the late 1960s, fights as a U.S. Army supersoldier
Supersoldier
Supersoldier is a term often used to describe a soldier that operates beyond normal human limits or abilities. Supersoldiers are common in science fiction literature, films, TV programs, computer, conspiracy theories, and video games, but have also made appearances in other related genres, such as...
in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
rather than as a super Legionnaire
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Creation
In early February 1930, Wylie described the inspiration for Danner's creation in the introduction to one of the earliest printings of Gladiator:Development
The novel begins during the closing years of the 19th century, as ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
science Professor Abednego Danner searches for a way to improve the innate weaknesses
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
of human biology and create a new "race that doesn't know fear — because it cannot know harm". After 14 years of research he finally discovers "alkaline radicals
Radical (chemistry)
Radicals are atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons on an open shell configuration. Free radicals may have positive, negative, or zero charge...
" that vastly improve "muscular strength and the nervous discharge of energy
Oxidative phosphorylation
Oxidative phosphorylation is a metabolic pathway that uses energy released by the oxidation of nutrients to produce adenosine triphosphate . Although the many forms of life on earth use a range of different nutrients, almost all aerobic organisms carry out oxidative phosphorylation to produce ATP,...
". Following very successful animal testing, which yields super-strong tadpoles and a bulletproof
Bulletproof
Bulletproofing is the process of making something capable of stopping a bullet or similar high velocity projectiles e.g. shrapnel. The term bullet resistance is often preferred because few, if any, practical materials provide complete protection against all types of bullets, or multiple hits in the...
kitten capable of taking down cattle as prey, he injects this super-serum into the womb of his pregnant wife, Matilda. Hugo Danner is born on Christmas several months later.
His parents imbue him with a strong moral compass during his formative years and warn him never to use his great strength in anger. However, during kindergarten, Danner nearly kills the school's bully in a one-sided fight after being assaulted by the child. This event brands him as an outsider in the eyes of the other children. Because they treat him with such abhorrence, his only solace comes in the form of unleashing his powers within the Colorado wilderness (uprooting trees, throwing huge boulders, leaping to the mountain tops, etc.). This stigma eventually wears off, though, and is forgotten by the time Danner enters high school.
Danner leaves Colorado after graduating high school to attend Webster University. There, he becomes an unstoppable football star and the most popular boy in school. During the summer months, he works as a circus strong man
Strongman (strength athlete)
In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or circus performers of similar ilk who displayed feats of strength such as the bent press , supporting large amounts of...
and even enters a fight competition for money. However, after returning to college and accidentally killing another player during a game, he quits school and becomes a sailor. A year later, his ship is trapped in France by the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914.
He and a fellow American sign up with the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
and find themselves on the battlements after a short training period. He eventually reveals his powers to his Legionnaire superiors, who believe him to be a devil or supernatural Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, and he is given free rein to roam the battlefield and kill as many German soldiers as he possibly can. Stories of "Le Colorado" (The Colorado) quickly spread from trench to trench and Danner becomes a sort of mythical hero. After a short stint in an American Legionnaire unit, Danner grows weary of war and devises a plan with an airplane:
However, the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
is signed the very day he prepares to leave, and so he is forced to abort his mission, much to his dismay. He returns to the United States and works in a number of professions — steel mill worker, bank teller, farm hand, and disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
lobbyist — but his unique stature among mortal men forever brings him grief. He eventually offers his services to a noted history professor preparing a Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
archaeological dig and travels with the group to the Yucatan Peninsula
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
.
During the trip, Danner wonders if the Mayans and Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
had discovered the same formula as his father, "which could be poured into the veins of the slaves [who built the pyramids], making them stronger than engines". There, he works as the head steward of the hired Mayan helpers and proves himself an asset to the team. But when a mishap reveals his great strength to the professor, the elderly man suggests Danner use his father's formula to create a new race of men known as the "Sons of Dawn", who will use their powers to right the world's wrongs. The idea appeals to him at first, but Danner fears that these sons would also be hated by humanity for their superiority and treated much the same as himself. In the end, he climbs a mountain amidst an oncoming thunderstorm, and is struck dead by lightning while praying to God. The formula is lost in the resulting fire. The professor discovers his charred remains three days later and buries him among the Mayan ruins.
Powers and abilities
Even during his early years, Danner displays superhuman strengthSuperhuman strength
Superhuman strength, also called superstrength, super-strength, or super strength, is an ability commonly employed in fiction. It is the ability for a character to be stronger than humanly possible...
. He demolishes his wooden crib as a newborn, saves a man's life by lifting a two-ton supply wagon at 6 years old, and uproots entire trees at 10. He progressively grows stronger as he gets older. During his twenties, he can stop and kill a charging bull with a single punch, bend a railroad rail, lift a seventy-five millimeter howitzer cannon singlehandedly, lift a car and its driver singlehandedly, rip open a 5 feet (1.5 m) bank vault, and easily catch a falling 8,000-pound block of stone.
Danner's physical strength extends to his legs, allowing him to leap great heights and distances. At age 10 he can leap 40 feet into the air and run faster than a train. During his freshman year in college, he easily breaks a world track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
record, though he actually doesn't run at his full speed. While in the service of the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he traverses thirty-seven miles round trip in just thirty minutes (a speed of about 148 mph); all while carrying 2,000 pounds of food, water, and ammunition for his unit. Despite his great strength, he is still susceptible to fatigue.
He first learns of his body's superior resistance to physical injury during the war. Bullets and bayonets glance off his tough skin. He believes he can even survive a plane crash. The only weaponry capable of penetrating his skin at the time are the largest artillery shells. Although, he still feels the effects of the elements, sweating under the heat of the sun and freezing during winter. Danner's only vulnerability is lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
, which ultimately kills him.
Danner's bodily tissues have a somewhat greater density than those of an ordinary human being. Though he has an athletic build, his strength is far greater than what his frame would naturally allow. People guess him to be 155 pounds, but he actually weighs 211. During his stint as a sailor, he goes pearl diving with the natives of Cristobal
Cristóbal, Colón
Cristóbal is a port in the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. It is located on the western edge of Manzanillo Island and is part of the Panamanian city and province of Colón...
and is able to dive deeper and stay under longer because of his density.
His body can heal damaged tissue
Healing factor
A healing factor is a term used to describe the ability of some characters in fiction to recover from bodily injuries or disease at a superhuman rate...
much faster and more extensively than an ordinary human can. He collapses from exhaustion and wounds sustained from artillery shells after he goes berserk against the Germans to avenge a friend's death. When he wakes up in an army hospital, he finds "his wounds had healed without the necessity of a single stitch". Long periods of comatose sleep (up to 20 hours) and the consuming of huge meals also aid in his regenerative process.
In other media
Film
Danner was portrayed by comedic actor Joe E. BrownJoe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
in the 1938 film The Gladiator, which loosely adapted science-fiction drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
as a comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, and, among the many changes, renamed the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
"Hugo Kipp". The film begins when Kipp wins a large sum of money in a contest and decides to return to college. There, he is talked into joining the football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team and fails to live up to his athletic father's legendary reputation. But after a Professor Danner (Lucien Littlefield
Lucien Littlefield
Lucien Littlefield was an American actor in the silent film era...
) injects Kipp with a serum that gives him superhuman strength, he becomes an unstoppable player and wins the heart of the self-centered quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
's girlfriend (June Travis
June Travis
June Travis was a motion picture actress from Chicago, Illinois.-Background:Born as June Dorothea Grabiner, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner, vice-president of the Chicago White Sox in the 1930s....
). In the end, he faces Man Mountain Dean
Man Mountain Dean
Man Mountain Dean , born Frank Simmons Leavitt, was a professional wrestler of the early 1900s.He was born in New York City, the son of John McKenney and Henrietta N. Leavitt. From childhood, Frank Leavitt was remarkably large in stature...
in a wrestling match, but the serum runs out at the last minute.
Comics
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
and artist Tony DeZuniga
Tony DeZuniga
Tony DeZuniga is a Filipino comic-book artist best known for his work for DC Comics, where he co-created the characters Jonah Hex and Black Orchid.-Early life and career:...
(credited as Antony DeZuniga) in Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' Marvel Preview
Marvel Preview
Marvel Preview was a magazine-sized black-and-white showcase comic book published by Curtis Magazines, an imprint of Marvel....
#9 (Winter 1976). Only the first half of the novel is adapted.
Danner next appeared in DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
' Young All-Stars
Young All-Stars
The Young All-Stars are a team of fictional DC Comics superheroes. They were created by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, and Michael Bair, and introduced in Young All-Stars #1, dated June 1987.-Publication history:...
#9-11 (Feb.-April 1988) and #28-31 (Aug.-Nov. 1989), as the estranged father of Iron Munro
Iron Munro
Iron Munro is a fictional superhero, who first appeared in Shadow Comics #1 , published by Street & Smith. He is loosely based on Aarn Munro, the hero of a series of short stories written by John W. Campbell in the 1930s...
, his illegitimate son. Munro was not a character or even a possibility in the original novel, where, as Danner's ailing scientist father explained, "the effect of the process is not inherited by the future generations. It must be done over each time".
In this storyline, Munro comes into possession of his father’s diary and learns of Danner's troubled life as the 20th century’s first metahuman
Metahuman
Metahuman is a term to describe superhumans in DC Comics' shared universe, the DC Universe. It is roughly synonymous with both mutant and mutate and posthuman in the Wildstorm and Ultimate Marvel Universes. Use of the term in reference to superheroes was coined in 1986 by author George R. R...
. After having read the diary, Munro turns to the government's secret Project M, demanding to know the location of the "Dinosaur Island
Dinosaur Island
Dinosaur Island is an island that has appeared in various comic book series published by DC Comics. The island is not the same "Dinosaur Island" that appeared in Batman #35...
" mentioned by Danner. There he meets a person who leads him instead to Maple White Land in South America. Munro is surprised when he finds his father is alive. Danner apparently faked his death in the Yucatan and briefly returned home to have a one-night stand with his former high school sweetheart Anna Blake. The resulting union bore Munro, who took his surname from his mother's new husband (who believed the child to be his own). Danner has, by this time, succeeded in rearing the first generation of the Sons of Dawn. He later reveals to the Young-All Stars that the villain Übermensch has stolen the formula in order to create his own race of supermen.
Munro is forced to oppose his father when Danner orders the Sons of Dawn to attack a Brazilian city. The combined might of the All-Star Squadron defeats the Sons of Dawn and Danner is killed during the final battle.
Danner starred in the four-issue miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Legend (April–July 2005) by writer Howard Chaykin
Howard Chaykin
Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book writer and artist famous for his innovative storytelling and sometimes controversial material...
and artist Russ Heath
Russ Heath
Russell Heath, Jr. is an American artist best known for his comic book work — particularly his DC Comics war stories for several decades and his 1960s art for Playboy magazine's Little Annie Fanny featurettes — and for his commercial art, two pieces of which, depicting Roman and...
, published by the DC imprint Wildstorm
Wildstorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
. Cover blurbs on the first two issues read, "Inspired by Philip Wylie's Novel Gladiator". The story now takes place in the second half of the 20th century, with the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
replacing World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, but the story remaining for the most part intact.
Comparison with later heroes
While no confirmation exists that SupermanSuperman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
co-creator Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
was influenced by Gladiator, Siegel did read the novel in 1932 and reviewed the book in his Science Fiction fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
. He and co-creator Joe Shuster
Joe Shuster
Joseph "Joe" Shuster was a Canadian-born American comic book artist. He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1...
began developing Superman in 1934.
Superman as originally conceived came from an unnamed planet whose inhabitants were millions of years more evolved than humans. When they reached maturity, "the people of his race became gifted with titanic strength". Their advanced evolution and great strength accounted for Superman's superhuman abilities on earth. As Siegel described them: "When maturity was reached, he discovered he could easily: leap th of a mile; hurdle a twenty-story building...raise tremendous weights...run faster than an express train...and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!"
Siegel and Shuster compared Superman's strength and leaping abilities to those of an ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
and a grasshopper
Grasshopper
The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...
, respectively, as did Abednego for his son. Danner also claims descent from a far-off land (Colorado) inhabited by a race of super-strong, indestructible men. In order to keep his true "experimental" origins a secret, he tells his Legionnaire
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
superiors, "[Colorado is a] place in America. A place that has scarcely been explored. I was born there. All the men of Colorado are born as I was born and are like me. We are very strong. We are great fighters. We cannot be wounded except by the largest shells.". Other examples of similarities include both of their biological fathers are scientists (Jor-El
Jor-El
Jor-El is a fictional character, an extraterrestrial in the . He was created by the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, and he first appeared in a newspaper comic strip in 1939 as Superman's biological father....
and Abednego), both grow up in rural settings (Smallville and Indian Creek, Colorado), both are imbued with a strong moral compass from a young age both lift cars over their heads, and both hide their powers from the world.
Wylie threatened to sue Siegel for plagiarism in 1940 but there is no evidence he carried through with the litigation. Historian Gerard Jones
Gerard Jones
For the entrepreneur see Gérard Jones.Gerard Jones is an award-winning American author and comic book writer.-Biography:Jones was born in Cut Bank, Montana, and raised in Los Gatos and Gilroy, California...
writes that, "Siegel flatly denied that Wylie's novel had influenced him in any way" although adding his own conjecture that "the timing and striking similarities ... would seem to leave no doubt of Gladiators role"
One critic noted that Danner's "creation and upbringing by a scientist father recall Doc Savage
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character originally published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L...
's origins" and a "prototype for the famous scene in which the fledgling Spider-Man defeats a hulking wrestler to make money is found in Wylie's novel; Hugo's bout in the ring is similar to that in the Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
's origin story in 1962's Amazing Fantasy
Amazing Fantasy
Amazing Fantasy is an American comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics from 1961 through 1962, and revived in 1995 and in the 2000s. It is best known as the title that introduced the popular superhero character Spider-Man in 1962...
#15."