Gladiator (novel)
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Gladiator is an American science fiction novel first published in 1930 and written by Philip Wylie. It is about a man named Hugo Danner whose scientist father gives him an incredible gift of strength, and his search for his place in the world. It is considered an inspiration for the character Superman.
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[edit] Story
The story begins around the turn of the century with one Professor Abednego Danner. Danner lives in a small, rural Colorado town, and has a somewhat unhappy marriage to a conservative religious woman named Matilda. Obsessed with unlocking genetic potential, Danner begins experimenting on a tadpole, after a few days it breaks through the bowl. So he tries it on an impregnated cat. When the cat’s litter is born, the kitten that has been charged with power accidentally kills the mother cat. His experiment is a success, as the kitten displays incredible strength and speed, managing to maul larger animals. Fearing the cat may be uncontrollable, Danner poisons it. When his wife becomes pregnant with their first child, Danner sees another opportunity, and duplicates his experiment on his unknowing wife. When their child is born, he is named Hugo.
He almost immediately displays incredible strength, and Danner’s wife realizes what her husband has done. Though she hates him, she does not leave him, and they instead raise their son to be respectful of his incredible gift and sternly instruct him never to fight, or otherwise reveal his gifts, lest he be the target of a witch hunt. Hugo grows up being bullied at school, unwilling to fight back. However, he finds release when he discovers the freedom the wilderness around his hometown provides, unleashing his great strength on trees as a manner of playing.
Hugo finds success in his teenage years, becoming a star football player, and receives a college scholarship. He spends summers and free time trying to find uses for his strength, becoming a professional fighter and strongman at a boardwalk. After killing another player during a football game, Hugo quits school.
Danner then journeys to France and joins the French Army for World War I, where his bulletproof skin comes in handy. Upon returning home, he gets a job at a bank, and when a person gets locked inside the vault, Hugo volunteers to get him out if everyone will leave the room. Alone, Hugo rips the vault door, freeing the man from suffocation. The banker's response is not gratitude but suspicion. He is deemed to be an inventive safecracker who was otherwise waiting for an opportunity to rob the vault. Not only is he fired and threatened with arrest for the destruction of the vault, but he is taken away and tortured. He withstands all attempts at getting him to tell how he opened the vault, escapes, and lifts a car into the air. It is this scene which is depicted on the cover of Action Comics #1 as being accomplished by Superman.
Next, he attempts to have an influence in politics, but becomes infuriated with the state of affairs and the bureaucracy of Washington. Still seeking a goal for his life and a purpose for his powers, he joins an archeological expedition headed for Mayan ruins. Finally finding a friend in the scientist heading the expedition, Hugo reveals his gifts and origin to him. The wise archeologist sympathizes with Hugo and suggests some courses of action for him to take. That night, during a thunderstorm, Hugo wanders to the top of a mountain, debating what to do. He asks God for advice, and is struck by lightning, killing him.
The book takes place in an age of incredible pulp heroes, such as Doc Savage, the predecessors to the superheroes who would create a genre unto themselves only a few years later. While the initial premise of Gladiator would typically be fertile ground for a superhero story, at no point does Hugo Danner put on a costume or seek to be a vigilante, or much of a hero of any kind, realizing the futility of such a move. Instead, it is the story of someone with incredible gifts unable to find his place in the world.
There is wide speculation about how much of what is happening in the story is indicative of feelings held personally by author Philip Wylie. The death of the protagonist by lightning while he asked questions of God likely echoes some of the feelings Wylie was known to have about religion.
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] Films
The novel was made into a movie in 1938 (and released only two months after Superman first appeared on newsstands), although the story was drastically altered into a comedy starring Joe E. Brown. The films IMDb entry can be found here
[edit] Graphic Novels
The story was adapted for Marvel Comics in Marvel Preview #9 (published in winter of 1976) by Roy Thomas and Tony DeZuniga. The issue makes certain liberties, but for the most part follows the essential story. While the blurb “from the blockbusting novel “Gladiator” by Philip Wylie” appears on the issues cover, the title heading (under “Marvel Previews Presents”) is “Man God.” Oddly, only the first half of the story from the novel is adapted. It is unknown if a continuation was planned.
The novel has most recently been adapted into a four issue prestige style comic book by acclaimed writer Howard Chaykin with art by Russ Heath. The series was published by Wildstorm, a division of DC Comics in 2005. The story was retitled “Legend” (presumably because of the overuse of the title “Gladiator” in various media over the past 75 years), although the covers of the first two issues include a large blurb saying “Inspired by Philip Wylie’s Gladiator.” The time line for the story was moved forward to the second half of the century, and Vietnam replaced World War I, but the story remained, for the most part, intact.
[edit] Additional Links
- Gladiator by Philip Wylie A site dedicated to Philip Wylie's novel, Gladiator. Includes cover scans of almost all editions, a scan of a lengthy inscription by Wylie about Gladiator and various essays.
[edit] Miscellaneous
Writer Roy Thomas later created a character named Arn "Iron" Munro in the DC comic book Young All-Stars, who was the son of Danner, sired prior to his journey to South America.
There are conflicting reports that the novel is in the public domain.
A copy of Gladiator can be seen in the apartment of Hollis Mason, a character in the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore.
