While vampires are the rock stars of the undead world, and zombies the everyman turned monster, and even mummies get some respect, ghouls seem to be the red headed stepchild of the monster world. A check of the movie databases reveal hundreds of movies about vampires made worldwide, zombies as the newest craze with scores of recent movies, and even mummies with movies in the double digits. I think there was one old black and white feature titled The Ghoul, and little else. It is the same in literature, with vampires commanding overwhelming attention and ghouls little if any mention. Robert E Howard seemed to like the idea of ghouls, featuring ghoul like creatures in several Conan stories, and Carter and De Camp placed them in at least one of the novels they wrote about the big Cimmerian. The ghouls in Howard were said to be stronger than human, with hair like wire, but they crunched satisfactorily when hit with a broadsword. There were also ghouls used in several of the old Gold Box D&D games, especially in sections that required the player to examine graveyards or deserted areas of town. Not all ghouls were stronger than human. Some were described as being weak creatures who overwhelmed their prey by force of numbers, sort of like zombies. Or, if the prey were dead bodies, there was no overwhelming necessary.
I guess one of the reasons for the dearth of ghouls in literature and film is the low threat level of the creatures. In most cases they can be avoided by not going into graveyards, especially at night, something most sensible people have no trouble doing. Or stay out of the haunted pass or woods that everyone in the area warns about. Vampires frequent clubs and dancing establishments, at least according to the movies, and zombies can come right into your yard and living room. No self respecting ghoul is going to be found in your yard unless you are throwing the mother-in-law’s body in the dumpster. Also, while vampires and zombies feed on the living, and mummies just kill the living out of sheer cursedness or out of revenge, ghouls are mostly carrion eaters. I mean they won’t pass up a meal if it happens to go walking by, but they prefer their meat tenderized through the process of decay. Hey, I guess whatever floats your boat.
I personally would like to see more of the ghoul. Not in my back yard, of course, but in the literature and movies of our time. It would be something different than the same old blood sucker or brain eater, even fresher than the much more sparsely done bandage wrapped priest or prince. Surely someone could come up with a good storyline that would fit with modern times. Maybe ghouls haunting the subways of New York or London, or people disappearing while walking by the graveyard of small town USA (you know, because there aren’t enough bodies being buried there). But I’m sure there’s an area waiting to be tapped by a person with the right imagination. So maybe another form of undead can join the ranks of the celebrated vampires and zombies.
Bruce Banner
All posts tagged Bruce Banner
I loved the Hulk as a child. I mean, what wasn’t there to like about the big guy? He was a bad ass, the Chuck Norris of the comics. And he was the typical Marvel character, troubled on many levels. Bruce Banner did not want to be the Hulk, it wasn’t a power he reveled in. But when he was the Hulk he became the most powerful can of whupass on the planet. No other super being could stand against him. Not Namor, not Ironman, not even Thor, though the hammer was quite an equalizer. Namor always got weaker out of water, while the Hulk never got weaker, so that fight was over as soon as it began. Ironman hit the Hulk with a jet, and probably got billed by the Air Force for destruction of Government property. And all it did was stun the big green guy long enough for Ironman to get out of Dodge. The Thing always wanted to think he was a match for the Hulk, but he never stood a chance. Because the Hulk had unlimited strength, the madder he got the stronger he got, and there was no limit to his rage. He was very good at smashing things that got in his way. He was even proficient as breaking things he really hadn’t set out to break, like the jet fighter he just happened to pass through on his way back to the ground after a leap. He broke things but didn’t really kill people, at least in the comics. In the modern movie version it was insinuated that he did kill people, but not out of any desire to kill. He was a bull in the china shop, and our fragile bodies were china compared to his muscular physique.
But the greatest thing about the Hulk to a child was his motivation. He was not really a hero, not really a villain, and a little of both. Sometimes he saved the world. But it was when he blundered into some situation and had to fight his way out that he foiled the plans of the villain based on world conquest or destruction. Mostly he just wanted to be left alone. And the bullies of the world, the militaries of the United States or Russia, or aliens, or evil people bent of conquest, would not leave him alone. Just as the bullies in school would not leave an intelligent child with a lot of imagination alone. But unlike the child, the Hulk could do something about it. He could smash, and drive the bullies away for just a short moment. They always came back, but he was always ready for them.
The other attractive part of the Hulk was the Bruce Banner character, who was always self sacrificing in his attempts to try and keep the beast from going on a rampage among civilization. This didn’t always work, because again and again the bullies tried to capture him in his weakest form, and would trigger the transformation into the unstoppable engine of destruction. Then afterwards Banner would calm down and the Hulk would revert to human form, with no memories of what happened. Sort of like a drunken blackout. But that’s another topic for another time.
