Reason to Love 60’s Marvel #55: Prester John

This is also part of a continuing series that could be labeled: Resasons to Love the Internet, or Reasons to Love Wikipedia.

I first learned about the 12th century superhero Prester John (Presbyter Johannes), the fabled Christian King of the East, from Umberto Eco’s excellent book Baudolino. Eco’s book is an exploration of the medieval concept of reality: that it was malleable and open to myth and story.

The basic story is that there’s this ancient Christian Priest-King with a kingdom on the Eastern edge of the world, beyond the Muslim lands, filled with all of the fabled monsters and beasts from various bestiaries (vampires, dog monsters, etc…). A letter from him is received by the Byzantine Emperor of the time, and starts a centuries long attempt by Western Popes, Kings, knights, and adventurers to find his fabled lands. In Eco’s version, the letter is written by the title character, as a fake, but as a fake that he comes to believe in (and that comes true bit by bit).

Thanks to a random tweet from @AllenVarney, I learned that it’s not just Italian linguists who’ve brought this once great Western myth to modern readers, but Smilin’ Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought Prestor John into the Marvel Universe before Eco thought to write of him. He lost his lands and his people to plague, so after he preserved his body to last for the ages, of course he became pissed off and fought the Fantastic Four after Johnny Storm tried to steal from his resting place. The Fantastic Four have never been ‘good guys;’ even though they’ve attempted altruism, they tend to screw it up time and time again.

For the full story, see the Prestor John entry from the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. (And leave it to Marvel to make this great man a villain in their version of things).

@1 month ago
#comics #marvel #umberto eco 
Reason to Love 60’s Marvel #55: Prester John

This is also part of a continuing series that could be labeled: Resasons to Love the Internet, or Reasons to Love Wikipedia.

I first learned about the 12th century superhero Prester John (Presbyter Johannes), the fabled Christian King of the East, from Umberto Eco’s excellent book Baudolino. Eco’s book is an exploration of the medieval concept of reality: that it was malleable and open to myth and story.

The basic story is that there’s this ancient Christian Priest-King with a kingdom on the Eastern edge of the world, beyond the Muslim lands, filled with all of the fabled monsters and beasts from various bestiaries (vampires, dog monsters, etc…). A letter from him is received by the Byzantine Emperor of the time, and starts a centuries long attempt by Western Popes, Kings, knights, and adventurers to find his fabled lands. In Eco’s version, the letter is written by the title character, as a fake, but as a fake that he comes to believe in (and that comes true bit by bit).

Thanks to a random tweet from @AllenVarney, I learned that it’s not just Italian linguists who’ve brought this once great Western myth to modern readers, but Smilin’ Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought Prestor John into the Marvel Universe before Eco thought to write of him. He lost his lands and his people to plague, so after he preserved his body to last for the ages, of course he became pissed off and fought the Fantastic Four after Johnny Storm tried to steal from his resting place. The Fantastic Four have never been ‘good guys;’ even though they’ve attempted altruism, they tend to screw it up time and time again.

For the full story, see the Prestor John entry from the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. (And leave it to Marvel to make this great man a villain in their version of things).

1 month ago
#comics #marvel #umberto eco