Dr.
Horrible Continues Its Conquest
of All-Things Media
When
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was first released on
the World Wide Web during the summer of 2008, it was an instant hit.
The three-act musical went on to become a successful selling DVD and
soundtrack CD, and even won an Emmy Award the following year. Although
lacking any sort of sing-along tunes, Dark Horse comics has added to
the Dr. Horrible narrative through a series of shorts exclusively
available on their MySpace
Dark Horse Presents
website, as well as by releasing a more traditional one-shot comic book.
“It’s
sort like the origin of Dr. Horrible,” Zack Whedon, who co-wrote
the original webseries, told Newsarama
in December, 2009. “We knew the general backgrounds of these characters
and their history with each other—that’s alluded to in the
show, that Dr. Horrible has been getting his butt kicked by Captain
Hammer for quite awhile, and that he’s been pining after Penny
for a long time. But aside from those things, his origin was all created
for this comic book.”
In the comic book
world of Dr. Horrible that Zack Whedon has created, heroes equal strength
and stupidity while evil is intelligent but physically weak. This is
not only evident in the one-shot, but in the mini-stories Whedon wrote
for MySpace Dark Horse Presents. In “Captain Hammer: Be Like Me,”
for instance, the super hero asks high school students for assistance.
“Evil is everywhere and I can’t do it alone,” he explains.
“I need your help.” Captain Hammer then defines his version
of evil. “Take a closer look at your schoolmates,” he offers
while pointing out two Goth kids. “You see harmless death nerds…
I see future super-villains.” From there, the Captain continues
his sales-pitch. “Have a friend that excels in math and science?”
he asks. “Report him! If you don’t you could end up an unwitting
accomplice to evil.” He concludes with, “So you do your
part, I’ll do mine, and maybe we can put these geeky weirdo perverts
in their place.”
One of those “geeky
weirdo perverts” that Captain Hammer is referring to is Dr. Horrible’s
friend and sidekick, Moist. In another MySpace Dark Horse Presents mini,
entitled “Moist: Humidity Rising,” the clammy henchman’s
backstory is revealed as well as how he first met Dr. Horrible. Penny
is also given the MySpace treatment in “Penny: Keep Your Head
Up.” Her reaction to a first date’s enthusiasm over super
heroes—“Did you see that disgruntled postal robot (Wingspan)
took down the other day?”—is to recite a litany of real
world problems, including the environment, hunger and woman’s
rights.
“Superheroes
are good for fighting sixty-foot robots,” she says, “but
how often do you see one of those? Where’s Wingspan when a little
girl goes to sleep hungry or homeless?” The likes of Captain Hammer
aren’t necessarily the heroes they portend to be after all.
The one-shot continues
that distinction, but this time from the viewpoint of Dr. Horrible.
It briefly starts in 1986, when eight-year-old Billy (who is already
in the sixth grade) is beaten up by a bully during lunch. With the thrashing
fresh in his mind—as well as a black-eye on his face—Billy
witnesses a showdown between evil genius Mister Maniacal and hero Justice
Joe after school. As the crowd cheers for Justice Joe, the two nemeses
exchange barbs.
“Now the world
will see that brains will always beat brawn,” the evil genius
declares. After his lunchtime encounter with the bully, the words have
an uplifting effect on young Billy. By the time the battle ends, Billy
is noticeably excited that Mister Maniacal has defeated Justice Joe.
Intelligence, it would seem, is superior to brawns after all.
The story jumps
to twenty years later, where the budding criminal mastermind known as
Dr. Horrible has his first encounter with Captain Hammer. The introduction
plays out exactly as one would expect, from Captain Hammer’s initial
dimwittedness (“Horrible? You’re not evil, are you?”)
to his eventual ass-kicking of Dr. Horrible.
Penny, meanwhile,
makes a brief appearance at the laundromat. As an excited Billy thinks
about his encounter with Captain Hammer (“I faced down Captain
Hammer; the master of all things douchebag knows who I am!”),
he notices the girl of his dreams. Suddenly he can’t think straight
and breaks into a sweat. He regains his focus, however, when a TV news
report notes that it is the twentieth anniversary of Justice Joe’s
death at the hands of Mister Maniacal. Billy’s eyes light up as
a plan emerges in his overly intelligent brain.
“Mister Maniacal
had the right idea,” he concludes. “Level the playing field.”
Enticing Captain Hammer into another fight—or, rather, another
ass-beating—the villain escapes the encounter with strains of
his nemesis’ hair. Using the DNA, he concocts a strength potion
in order to fight Captain Hammer on more physically-equal terms.
Moist, however,
doesn’t initially understand the plan. “I don’t get
it,” he tells Dr. Horrible. “You want people to follow you,
but after Mister Maniacal defeated Justice Joe, he wasn’t followed.
I mean he was followed, but it was by a mob that then set him on fire.”
Dr. Horrible explains that was because “people want strength.”
Mister Maniacal’s plan failed because it simply weakened Justice
Joe. By strengthening himself instead, Dr. Horrible’s “far
superior mind will tip the scales” and win both the battle and
public opinion. (Obviously neither happens.)
There are
numerous references to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in
the comic. Mister Maniacal’s evil laugh, for instance, is similar
to the one Dr. Horrible uses at the start of the online musical. The
budding super villain also devises a plan to “bring the municipal
government to its knees” by using quarter-shaped explosives to
destroy parking meters, “resulting in a huge loss of revenue for
the city.” This is similar to his later comments about stealing
gold from Fort Knox. “It’s not about making money, it’s
about taking money,” he explains in the musical. “It’s
about disrupting the status quo.”
Bad Horse makes
an appearance in the one-shot, as does his terrible death whinny: “Wheeeee
Haw Hawn Haaaw!” There are also comic renderings of David Fury
and Marti Noxon as TV news anchors, just as the real-life television
writers appeared in the original. And Captain Hammer is seen conversing
with the three groupies from of the Sing-Along Blog, and even has his
hand on the “ass” of co-creator Maurissa Tancharoen.
When Moist suggest
using one of the many ray guns in Dr. Horrible’s arsenal, the
evil genius replies, “Those things never work.” Yet when
Captain Hammer throws a steel beam at Dr. Horrible, it is the Transmatter
Ray that saves the day (although it inevitably turns the beam into liquid
form, just as it does with the gold bars from Fort Knox). Finally, upon
seeing a billboard for anti-aging skin cream that states “Stop
Time,” Dr. Horrible responds, “Not a bad idea.”
“There are
a number of little sort of nods and references to the show,” Zack
Whedon explained to Newsarama. “Some of which are extremely subtle
and nobody will pick up on, or only the diehards will, and some which
are overt and ridiculous. But I think it will be fun for that reason,
that there’s all these sort of winks and nods to the fans.”
During
the 2009 Emmy Awards, the ceremony was briefly interrupted when super
villain Dr. Horrible hijacked the broadcast to announce that “the
future of home entertainment is the Internet.” While the validity
of such a statement still remains to be seen, Zack Whedon’s comic
book contributions to the ongoing story has proven that Dr. Horrible
is viable entertainment in a multitude of media forms.
