HOURMAN - does this make sense?

[The Cool Thatguy]

Most crimes are spur of the moment that require a quick egress.

If thieves were to wait for an hour to escape Rex, the cops would have them surrounded and hell, could have closed off a six block area in that time.

Fights? Fights themselves are usually quick and violent things. Few last an hour.

It's not the wisest name, but it's not that great a drawback

[John Venus]

Rex Tyler was a chemist and a businessman during WW2. The Hourman persona was the mascot for his brand of supplements that promised to turn you into a super soldier for an hour and it was his way of contributing to the war effort. However, the pills were a bust before they went into mass production because of it's addictive properties and also it destroys your body after a couple of uses. Rex was immune because he had the meta gene which starved off the worst side effects of the supplements but he still had an addiction to it which he hid from others. Out of a sense of patriotic duty and survivors guilt, Rex kept the Hourman persona and joined other costumed heroes as a part of the JSA/All Star Squadron and he did good deed as a way to atone for his unintentional past mistake. He also admits to a sense of thrill, a certain rush he gets knowing that he only has one hour to do all he can with the serum in his body.

There, that's my take.

[Alpha]

Okay I like that a lot. Maybe the Minute Men of America could also be part of that

[Jim Kelly]

Hourman / Hour-man and Al Pratt in particular is a character that writers have rexamined a lot decades after he was created, and have tried to think through his stories to deepen his characterization and embolden the concept. So it's totally in vogue to ask these questions of Al Pratt, like multiple writers have before, with great care and recognition.

I know that HOURMAN (one of my all time favourite comics) did some stuff with "Tick-Tock" Tyler (mostly what was already in the canon), but I didn't know Al Pratt had gotten any development. I must have missed those comics.

I like Al Pratt--the pratt--but he's sort of the butt of jokes, as far as I know. I think most of my understanding of his character comes from my own interpretation of him based on his clothing choices and his height--so a bit from artists like Mike Parobeck--but nothing in story.

I think it's putting too much pressure on the codename to assume that people would figure out all this stuff about Hour-Man from his codename. He wouldn't be so stupid as to do an interview with a Daily Planet reporter on the balcony of her apartment, giving her all his vital information to be be published in the newspaper the next day.

There were lots of mystery men with time-related codenames. There's the seminal comic book mystery man, the Clock. Why did he even choose such a name (seriously I don't know). You don't expect Minute Man to be done in a minute. Hourman is the Man of the Hour. A super-hero who sticks around for a full hour is quite the deal--most super-heroes only stick around for five minutes. People might just assume the name is figurative not literal.

There were characters named Green Lantern, Green Arrow. Those names aren't supposed to be literal. Green Lantern doesn't even carry around a lantern with him--he uses a ring. So why not Green Ring?

The thing hanging from Tick-Tock's neck is too small to be a functioning hourglass. It could probably only time a three minute egg. Why didn't people call him the Yellow Egg-Timer? And hourglasses are used as symbols for a lot of different characters. For example, the Challengers of the Unknown used the hourglass symbol--a figurative representation of living on borrowed time.

The reason in actuality, why he's called Hourman, is he's part of the second wave of super-heroes. The first wave, represented by Superman and a few others, is the hero who just has lots of powers. In the second wave, the editors started to push characters that had some gimmick--in part because they wanted to avoid being sued by the Superman publishers and they found they could avoid that by making their characters specialists rather than general practitioners. The codename was an indication of the specialty for that character.

I don't think this just appealed to children, either. Adults would read these comics, too. And they appreciated the name of the feature giving an indication of what it was about. Aquaman--a guy in water. Shining Knight--a knight in shining armour. Plastic Man--man of plastic. I grant you the name Hourman isn't going to light the house on fire--which accounts for his never being a very big deal--but it's tough to come up with new gimmicks for characters.

[Jabare]

it's not uncommon for Superhero names to be their superpowers. I'm not going to knock him for having a time limit


see:
Fire
Ice
Spider-Man
Squirrel Girl
Lady Cop
Matter-Eater Lad
Skateman
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Color Kid
The Gay Ghost (this one doesn't hold up with contemporary language)
Arm-Fall-Off Boy

etc.

[thwhtGuardian]

It's one of those things that just can't over think, it doesn't have a real in universe reason because the character is from a time when you didn't need that kind of consistency.

[Digifiend]

Most superheroes/supervillian monikers are probably inventions of the public and media than the characters. So hour man's title could be done similarly. In Rick's Era the newspapers called him Hourman and he begrudgingly accepted it.

In Rex's generation he tries to change it and is unsuccessful. With Matthew he just liked the pun.

You've mixed them up. Rex is the golden age one, Rick's the modern one.

[Alpha]

I know that HOURMAN (one of my all time favourite comics) did some stuff with "Tick-Tock" Tyler (mostly what was already in the canon), but I didn't know Al Pratt had gotten any development. I must have missed those comics.

Yeah that was a total brainfart by me, I meant to say Rex Tyler instead of Al Pratt. The whole drug addiction etc, that Roy Thomas, James Robinson and others developed in his characterization.

It's one of those things that just can't over think, it doesn't have a real in universe reason because the character is from a time when you didn't need that kind of consistency.

But Rex Tyler is notably one of the Golden Age characters that has been most seriously re-examined.

And I think John Venus's proposal is quite handy. It being public knowledge. Fusing that with the Minute Men of America assisting him, this would allow him to function even with the limitation and provide a reason for the moniker.

[thwhtGuardian]

Yeah that was a total brainfart by me, I meant to say Rex Tyler instead of Al Pratt. The whole drug addiction etc, that Roy Thomas, James Robinson and others developed in his characterization.



But Rex Tyler is notably one of the Golden Age characters that has been most seriously re-examined.

And I think John Venus's proposal is quite handy. It being public knowledge. Fusing that with the Minute Men of America assisting him, this would allow him to function even with the limitation and provide a reason for the moniker.

It's workable, and if it makes the stories read better for you I'm all for headcanon...but personally I find it easier just to accept that it's just the way it is given the time the character was created.

[DrNewGod]

...I think John Venus's proposal is quite handy. It being public knowledge. Fusing that with the Minute Men of America assisting him, this would allow him to function even with the limitation and provide a reason for the moniker.

It's a YMMV thing. I'm quite content with his nickname meaning nothing more to the public than his hourglass emblem, the way "The Boss" has nothing to do with Bruce Springsteen (at least, not to most of us).

[Alpha]

It's a YMMV thing. I'm quite content with his nickname meaning nothing more to the public than his hourglass emblem, the way "The Boss" has nothing to do with Bruce Springsteen (at least, not to most of us).

Calling him the boss just means that he's leading the genre. Nothing unclear about it.

Same way Superman and Wonder Woman aren't motif based monikers, but qualify the character. Hourman on the other hand has a moniker that does alude to a motif, and the symbol he wears represents the exact same motif literally. That's why I was asking if anybody had a strong reason for why he would have that time motif in public, and the user John Venus posted an adequate solution

[Drako]

it's not uncommon for Superhero names to be their superpowers. I'm not going to knock him for having a time limit


see:
Fire
Ice
Spider-Man
Squirrel Girl
Lady Cop
Matter-Eater Lad
Skateman
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Color Kid
The Gay Ghost (this one doesn't hold up with contemporary language)
Arm-Fall-Off Boy

etc.

The MCU writers would be salivating if they saw this list, they can write like 8 unoriginal jokes about how comic book names are stupid.

"Ha Ha but what is your real name?" "Ha Ha what a dumb name!"

[DrNewGod]

Calling him the boss just means that he's leading the genre. Nothing unclear about it.

Same way Superman and Wonder Woman aren't motif based monikers, but qualify the character. Hourman on the other hand has a moniker that does alude to a motif, and the symbol he wears represents the exact same motif literally. That's why I was asking if anybody had a strong reason for why he would have that time motif in public, and the user John Venus posted an adequate solution

Springsteen may have believed that once...