The following contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, now playing in theaters.
Today, we look at five times that superheroes had their mouths magically removed.
In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I’ll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is “missing” if it is not listed. It’s just not one of the five examples that I chose.
In the new film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Scarlet Witch attacks a group of superheroes in an alternate reality and kills the Black Bolt of that reality by using her powers to alter reality and magically remove his mouth. This is likely a reference to Joe Dante’s story in the hit 1983 film, The Twilight Zone. However, while that likely was where Sam Raimi got the idea, it is interesting to note (as longtime reader Rob H. did to me via e-mail) that there is a long history of body horror in comics where superheroes have been tortured in similar fashion. Let’s take a look at five examples!
ODIN PUNISHES THOR BY TAKING AWAY HIS MOUTH
At the end of Thor #190, Loki has tricked his way into usurping Odin’s rule as the head of Asgard. Thor is shocked that his father is just taking this thing seemingly laying down in the next issue (by Stan Lee, John Buscema and Joe Sinnott), but Odin does not like being taunted by his son…
so he removes Thor’s mouth so that he can’t backtalk him…
However, after Thor begs him for forgiverness (it is a super messed up sequence), Odin forgives him and gives him his mouth back. Man, Odin is MESSED UP, right?
THANOS DOESN’T WANT STARFOX TO USE HIS POWERS OF PERSUSIAN, SO HE REMOVES HIS MOUTH
In Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos got the Infinity Gaunlet (what a weird coincidence!) and set out to reshape the universe in his image, starting off by paying tribute to his love, Death, by snapping his fingers and killing off half of the universe. This, naturally, is not taken well by a lot of people in the universe, including Thanos’ brother, Eros (also known as the Avenger called Starfox), who comes to try to reason with his brother in Infinity Gauntlet #2 (by Jim Starlin, George Perez and Joe Rubinstein). Eros has the ability to affect people’s mind with his voice, so Thanos, naturally, decides to remove Eros’ ability to speak by removing his mouth…
Eros is without his mouth for the rest of the story, only gaining it back when Adam Warlock becomes the wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet and reverses all the damage that Thanos did.
EMPEROR JOKER FOUND A WAY TO FINALLY BREAK BATMAN
During the Emperor Joker storyline in the Superman titles, the world has suddenly been remade by the Joker, who has become an all-powerful being. In Action Comics #770 (by Joe Kelly, Kano and Marlo Alquiza), Superman is trapped along with Batman, who Joker has removed his mouth. However, since Batman still has a jaw, he communicates with Superman through Morse Code using his jaw. Superman is so impressed by how Joker has been unable to break Batman…
However, Superman’s stance is altered when he realizes that Batman is telling him to kill the Joker, as it turns out that Batman HAS been broken by the Joker…
Superman then sees WHY, as every day, the Joker has Batman horribly murdered, as Batman is eaten to death while his mouth-less mouth screams and then the Joker revives Batman the next day, with the memory of his horrific death intact and Joker puts Batman through this EVERY DAY…
Even the Dark Knight can’t keep from being broken by this sort of thing. Once Superman stopped the Joker and everything is fixed, Batman’s brain is the only thing not fixed, until Superman convinces the Spectre to give Batman’s pain to him, to seal up in a corner of his mind.
ZATANNA’S MAGIC IS SPOKEN ALOUD, SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HER MOUTH IS REMOVED?
One of the most powerful members of the Justice League of America is Zatanna, who is one of the strongest users of magic in the DC Universe. However, Zatanna uses her mouth on her spells by saying words backwards. Therefore, when the Justice League faced off against Super-Amazo in Justice League of America #23 (by Dwayne McDuffie and Ed Benes), this version of Amazo also has magical powers, and it quickly used its version of Zatanna’s own magic to seal her mouth to prevent her from speaking her spells…
However, Zatanna doesn’t HAVE to speak her spells, that’s just the EASIEST way for her to use her magic. As we later saw, she could also cast a spell by using her own blood to write the spell out. That is how she got over the attack.
HAVOK WENT THROUGH HELL AS A HELLION
One of the “problems” with the X-Men’s new mutant nation on Krakoa allowing all mutants is that there were a number of, well, you know, evil mutants on the island, as well. Psylocke was assigned to lead a team of former villains who were willing to reform, including Havok, who had been inverted and turned into a villain during the Axis crossover, but was now back to normal (ish). The Hellions were sent to clear out a basement filled with defunct clones of the Marauders when they ran into Madelyne Pryor, Havok’s former girlfriend (and the former wife of Havok’s brother, Cyclops, not to mention the clone of Jean Grey).
Madelyne, the Goblyn Queen, uses her powers to remove Havok’s mouth in Hellions #2 (by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia, David Curiel and Ariana Maher)….
In the next issue, he cuts open his own mouth (Zatanna also did a similar thing another time someone sealed her mouth in a Justice League Dark issue), and before Madelyne is killed, she returns his mouth to normal (Havok then spends the rest of the series trying to get Madelyn resurrected like the other mutants, which goes against the rule against resurrecting clones of mutants).
Thanks for the suggestion, Rob!
If anyone has suggestions for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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