10 Comic Book Inventions That Could Actually Change The World
8. Fortress Robots
As even a casual comics fan knows, Superman has a Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic. Rather than impose his Kryptonian culture and values on us Humans, he simply staked out a small part of the world where nobody else lived and built a shrine to his biological parents and their dead world. Like a bigger, druggier version of Batmans trophy room, The Fortress is often portrayed as a cathedral of absurdity, with endangered alien species held in bubble-like enclosures, confiscated weapons of galactic mass destruction (kept under constant guard, of course) and other interstellar curios as well. However, my favourite thing about Supermans fortress was always the robots. Supermans super-robots run the fortress whenever he is away and do all the cooking, cleaning, ironing and feeding of the many-tentacled purple space gorillas so he doesnt have to. The robots have been depicted in many different ways over the years, sometimes they look exactly like Supes himself (and can even substitute for him on minor missions) and other times they resemble flying golden vacuum cleaners that are obsessed with order and duty. Maybe the best design though (and the one Id most want in my house) is the Frank Quitely version of the robots used in Grant Morrisons pitch-perfect All Star Superman series. Quitely rendered them with such utter Humanity and quiet dignity that I found myself wishing I could have a couple for around the house. Robot 7 Do the washing up, please. Robot 5 Its Wednesday, can you get to the comics shop and pick up my books? Robot 3 Finish the rest of this article for me, Im going back to bed." Robot 9 A ham, cheese and jalapeno toastie, please. Paradise.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
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Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
