Tue May 13, 2008 7:46AM15 comments ›
Tue May 13, 2008 — by Dennis O'Neil
The Real Hero, by Dennis O'Neil
The Four-Color Answer #65
Deju vu all over again? Why, sure.About 19 years ago, I was being pulled into the summer movie/blockbuster season anticipating two of the myriad entertainments soon to be playing at a theater near me. One was Tim Burton’s second Batman flick, with Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman and Danny Devito as a particularly nasty Penguin. Oh, and Michael Keaton in his final appearance as the Caped Crusader. (Back then, although he was not a barrel of laughs, he may have been just an eensy-bitsy too cheerful to qualify as a Dark Knight.) Batman was soaking up most of my professional life – I was editing the comic books – and I was writing a comics version of the screenplay, and so I had a distant, tenuous but real interest in the movie. And anyone who’s ever been involved with a Major Motion Picture knows that there is an excitement to such projects that ripples outward to touch even us at their distant edges. (Which may be why working in movies seems to be, for many, so addictive.) In sum: yeah, I was awaiting the Batman flick with more than idle curiosity.
But what I was really waiting for was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indy was Professor Jones, a university academic with a doctorate who actually taught classes when he wasn’t off having extravagant adventures in exotic climes. As for Mr. Paladin: when he wasn’t having his own adventures among those mountains and mesas and arroyos and dusty trails and the almost-as-dusty main streets of obscure frontier towns, he lived in a luxurious San Francisco hotel, enjoyed fine provender, and – a deal-clincher for a 16-year-old Catholic kid of the 50s – he liked girls. Occasionally, he would quote Shakespeare or one of those guys, and also occasionally, he could be caught reading a book. Didn’t apologize for it, either.
Roy, Gene, Hoppy, Sunset…none of my earlier cowboy heroes were ever seen with a book, nor heard quoting anybody. Females? Well, a purty fillie was something to be ridden away from after the owlhoots were dead or jailed. All that was fine when I was six; at sixteen, though, it didn’t satisfy me, not completely. Paladin, and later Indy, did satisfy me because, I think, the subtext of their exploits was: It’s okay to be a reader. Being a reader doesn’t mean you’re a sissy. Being a reader doesn’t disqualify you from also being tough, competent, righteous. Go ahead and read.
Indy and Paladin were heroes I could somehow identify with. Even at 16, I may have suspected that I’d always be better at book reading than horse riding. And I might not always want to leave purty fillies standing in one of those damn dusty streets.
RECOMMENDED READING: A Short History of Myth
Dennis O'Neil is an award-winning editor and writer of Batman
Jump to comments (15)
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Comments (15)
Russ Rogers (10:20 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
I'm too young to remember "Have Gun Will Travel" and Paladin. But I do remember Hec Ramsey, starring Richard Boone, who had also played Paladin! "Hec Ramsey" was part of the NBC Mystery Movie series that included McCloud and Columbo. Hec Ramsey was an intellectual wild west lawman, who carried a gun, but was more likely to solve a case with a fingerprint kit or a lie detector.
In one episode, Hec Ramsey reveals that he had worked under the name "Paladin," tying the two shows together.
According to Wikipedia, "Have Gun Will Travel" was one of the few TV shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio version ran from 1958-1960 and starred John Dehner as Paladin. It was one of the last radio dramas with continuing characters. Did you ever listen to the radio series?
Vinnie Bartilucci (10:23 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
I recall Elayne's ex, Steve Chaput (a librarian by trade) relating the sheer joy he felt at this interchange from The Mummy (1999)
Evelyn: Look, I... I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick: And what is that?
Evelyn: I... am a librarian.
Finding a character you can identify with in fiction is a treat indeed. I, for example, have always said my favorite Broadway musicals star a charlatan with a heart of gold (Music Man, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Producers, and A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum).
Heck, it may well be why Spider-Man has always been such a popular character (there's a lot more wallflowers than jocks).
Elayne Riggs (6:33 PM on Tue May 13, 2008)
Oh heck, Steve still feels that way whenever librarians are mentioned. :)
My main reason to eventually want to see Iron Man is the way I've been told Paltrow portrays an executive/personal assistant. We super-secretaries rarely get to shine!
Bob Pinaha (11:04 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
I loved watching "Have Gun Will Travel" as a young boy. I remember receiving for Christmas the Paladin cowboy hat, holster and gun. It came with a set of "Have Gun Will Travel" cards for handing out. What fun!
Denny, was there ever a comic book adaptation of the series?
Alan Coil (11:30 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
I'm not Denny, but yes. Four Color #931, #983, #1044, and #4 through #14; Dell; 1958-1962.
(I have 2 books next to my computer---a dictionary, and the Overstreet Price Guide.)
mike weber (11:18 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
Actually, as i recall it, the connection between the two was implied in the novelisation of the pilot episode, rather than in an actual episode. (I could be wrong.)
But, since "Have Gun" and "Ramsey" were, to the best of my knowedge, produced by two different companies for two different networks, at the time i don't think that sort of sly referential humour would have been used in "Ramsey".
I could, of course, easily be wrong.
Just ask my wife.
However, a similar bit that i *do* remember specifically, is George Lazenby showing up in the "Man from UNCLE" TV movie, drving a gadget-equiped Aston Martin with plates that read :JB"...
mike baron (10:32 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
I remember Paladin well. In one episode, a woman calls him "John."
mike weber (11:25 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
Well, some women call *everybody* "John" - not necessarily to their faces, mind you...
mike weber (11:24 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
BTW - were you aware that there's a possible remake, starring Eminem - possibly "updated" to modern settings, if i read the posts i just encountered - in play?
Mike Gold (11:43 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
Boone went on to star in an aptly named anthology series, The Richard Boone Show. It had a repertory cast that starred Harry Morgan, Lloyd Bochner, Jeannette Nolan, and a very young Robert Blake (who's still looking for his gun). Buck Houghton was the producer, coming in from The Twilight Zone, and Clifford Odets was story editor.
With a pedigree like this, it was, of course, doomed to failure after one shortened season. Amusingly, it was done by Goodson-Todman Productions, producer of many an amazingly successful teevee game show.
Paul McCall (11:58 AM on Tue May 13, 2008)
I remember Have Gun Will Travel from my childhood more as a whole rather than individual episodes so I'm getting a massive amount of pleasure watching the DVD season sets, three of which are currently available. Several early episodes were written by Gene Roddenberry. As Mr. O'Neil stated, it was a very atypical western for the times.
Andy Vaughn (3:19 PM on Tue May 13, 2008)
Paladin's real name was never revealed in the series. In a later episode entitled "Genesis" the origin of paladin was revealed. "Paladin" for an unexplained reason, was a West Point dropout, and was lured into a crooked poker game by a character played by William Conrad. After losing everything in the game, including an IOU, the character is forced by millionaire Conrad to go after a cowboy, simply known as "Smoke", who has been making things "hot" for Conrad's land-holdings. The character ends up trapped in a box canyon by Smoke, who is also played by Richard Boone. He wears the same black outfit that we know, yet his hair is snow white. Smoke is also dying of consumption, while he playfully toys with the character, even to the point of calling him "my young Paladin." During the byplay, we learn that Conrad is evil and Smoke has only been protecting the local ranchers. Smoke later dies, and Boone takes up the mantle of the black outfit, and calls himself "Paladin", smoke's nickname for him.
Linda Gold (3:40 PM on Tue May 13, 2008)
I loved "Have Gun, Will Travel" as a child and Paladin was at the top of my TV heroes list. Mike and I have been watching the DVD's of the show and my first reaction was that the shows were so well written and packed in so much story that I had always remembered them as being a hour long instead of the actual half hour they were.
Michael H. Price (4:53 PM on Tue May 13, 2008)
One of the better teevee programs, all right. Memorable theme-song, too -- with a melodic hook sufficient to have inspired an instrumental pop-rock version by Duane Eddy. The show also provoked a splendid pun: The Wrigley's vending-machine jobber in my hometown adorned his truck with a sign reading, "Have Gum -- Will Travel."
Zonker (4:13 PM on Fri May 16, 2008)
So, Denny, was Paladin the inspiration for your treatment of Bat Lash? Or was his nature largely developed by Infantino & Aragones, with you more or less simply supplying the dialogue?