Thursday 1 September 2011

Dr Faustus gets his comeuppance

I must admit I never cared too much for Dr Faustus when I first discovered him in the pages of Captain America 161-162. He was a villain using pop psychiatry against super-heroes, and as such was always a nattily dressed big, bulky man, but artist Sal Buscema made him far too teutonic for him to be hot. I can't say I remember anything about Dr Faustus' next apperance in Captain America 192, drawn by Frank Robbins (an excellent artist, but not known for his sexy bodies, male or female). And then came Amazing Spider-Man 170 and I looked at the good doctor in a whole new light. Artist Ross Andru made Dr Faustus into a real bear of a man (emphasising the fact that he'd only been seen in silhouette the issue before, and that was a red herring to make readers think that the bulky villain was Spidey's arch-nemesis the Kingpin). Whatever the reasons, Dr Faustus never looked better, I thought. Of course, the fact that he always wore a suit and tie made him even sexier.
And lo and behold! At the end of the story, Spider-Man left Dr Faustus in a hogtie! That was real hot!
Unfortunately, when one looks very closely at the image of the hogtied Dr Faustus, one realizes that his legs must be very, very long. Still, Ross Andru manages to make that improbable anatomy look convincing. Too bad the good doctor didn't get more time tied up, but then again, villains rarely do, in comics.