Marv
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- This article is about the fictional character. For other uses see, Marv (disambiguation)
Marv is one of the main protagonists from the graphic novel series Sin City, created by Frank Miller. He first appears in The Hard Goodbye and follows with appearances in A Dame to Kill For, Just Another Saturday Night, and Silent Night. He makes a brief cameo in Blue Eyes (as featured in Lost, Lonely, and Lethal).
He works the streets of Basin City, universally nicknamed Sin City, performing odd jobs for various people who he feels deserve his help.
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[edit] Appearances in the Sin City series
Marv is one of the major characters of the Sin City series, and appears or is mentioned in nearly every book. He is the protagonist of the first Sin City "yarn", The Hard Goodbye, as well as two shorter yarns, Silent Night and Just Another Saturday Night. He has a supporting role in A Dame to Kill For.
The Hard Goodbye begins as Marv has sex (for the first time, his nature and appearance preventing him from doing so previously) with a beautiful blond prostitute named Goldie, only to wake up to find her dead and himself framed for her murder. He escapes from the cops, and swears to track down Goldie's murderers and give them "the hard goodbye". He kills his way through a chain of small-time thugs who are related to Goldie's death. The last one, a priest, sends him to an abandoned farm outside of town where he confronts Goldie's killer, a silent cannibal named Kevin. Kevin is the ward (and possibly the lover) of the most powerful man in town, Cardinal Roarke. But before he can come after the Cardinal, he is captured by Goldie's twin Sister Wendy. He convinces her of his innocence and she assists him in his revenge.
Marv proceeds to torture and kill Kevin, then stages a one-man attack on the Cardinal's fortress. He confronts the Cardinal, and it is revealed that Goldie was killed because she found out that the Cardinal and Kevin were kidnapping and eating prostitutes. Marv kills Roarke in an unspecified but extraordinarily violent way before being gunned down by his guards.
Marv survives the shootings, and is blackmailed (his mother is threatened) to confess not only to the murder of Roarke and Kevin but also to that of Lucille, Goldie and the other girls Kevin killed. He is sentenced to death. Before his execution, Wendy visits him one last time. Marv is executed by two jolts from an electric chair. After surviving the first jolt, he says to his executioners: "Is that the best you can do, you pansies?" The switch is thrown again and Marv is soon pronounced dead.
In A Dame To Kill For (which is set just before The Hard Goodbye) he becomes a sidekick of sorts to his good friend Dwight McCarthy, agreeing to help him rescue his former lover Ava Lord. When it is revealed to be a set up, he rushes a mortally wounded Dwight to Old Town, where he is taken in by his former 'associate' Gail. Shortly afterwards Marv becomes involved with Goldie.
In Silent Night, Marv rescues a young girl from sexual slavery. The story is told with almost no dialogue.
In Just another Saturday Night, Marv wakes up on the side of a highway, surrounded by dead men, and tries to piece together how he got there.
[edit] Physical appearance
Marv is a 7-foot tall man with a heavily scarred face and a flattop buzzcut. He is always seen dressed in a trench-coat, leather pants and boots. He wears a cross around his neck.
[edit] Personality
In the book Sin City: The Making of the Movie, creator Frank Miller describes the creation of Marv as a juxtaposition of his two biggest influences: film noir and medieval stories. The result was the idea for a character he called "Conan in a trench coat."
Despite his presumed Catholic upbringing, Marv is a violent, borderline psychotic who uses his tremendous strength and fighting skills to bring down those who challenge him or break his personal code of ethics.
He suffers from an unnamed mental condition that causes him to "get confused", which, judging from his own awareness of his illness and the effects it is shown to have, probably involves short-term memory loss and possibly hallucinations. Lucille, his parole officer, supplies him with medication to control these effects of his condition. Lucille's girlfriend Claire, a psychiatrist, supplies Marv's drugs and once tried to analyze him, but he claims she got "too scared." He doesn't seem to be supplied with anything that curbs his violent impulses, however.
Marv has convinced himself that he doesn't have a particularly high intellect, but he shows a surprising amount of intelligence when needed, noticeably an ability to logically deduce confusing and complex events. However, in most situations he just smashes his way through conflicts, such as kicking down a door and sending police flying, or charging a squad of heavily armed cops whilst only armed with a hatchet.
Marv has a well developed skill and appetite for torture. He never blinks or seems to think twice about inflicting the slowest, most creative and painful death he can possibly implement on his worst enemies. He speaks in a soft, calm manner, showing no sign of hesitation or fear, even while committing gruesome killings.
While he has no compunction about maiming and killing anyone he feels has wronged him, even he has his limits. He is deeply afraid of winding up as "a maniac [or] a psycho killer" and thus will only kill someone if he "knows for sure he ought to", making it a point not to kill those who have not earned it. He adheres unrelentingly to his own personal code of honor, which also dictates the repayment of debts and chivalry towards women, stating that it really gets his goat when "guys rough up dames." He also has a soft spot for children, suggested when he rescues a little girl from pimps in Silent Night, as well as for animals, as shown when he knocks out, rather than kills, Kevin's wolf.
[edit] Traits
- Carries a .45 ACP Colt M1911 which he took from the toughest person he tangled with in high school who "was dead at the time, so he didn't mind." He named it 'Gladys' after the toughest nun at his school. He believes that the gun has almost lived up to the name.
- Grew up in the Projects of Sin City.
- Loves his mother.
- Once said he "fought in a war," most likely Vietnam. This would explain his scarred face and possibly his mental state.
- Hangs around Kadie's.
- Refers to his hands as his "mitts".
- Is a good friend of Dwight McCarthy and is a sort of a guardian angel for Nancy Callahan, on whom he has an unrequited (and mostly unrealized) crush.
- Has a low opinion of "modern cars" and new country music.
- Has immense respect for Lucille, despite not being able to fathom her sexuality.
- Is almost superhumanly strong and durable, having shrugged off multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head; being hit by a car; taking a blow to the head by a sledgehammer; massive blood loss; and even electrocution.
- He is immensely skilled in hand to hand combat. He is shown executing various strikes and disarming movements from Krav Maga, Tae Kwon Do, and Keichu Do. Coupled with his staggering strength and finesse, Marv is victorious in nearly every fight he is involved in, both in the books and film.
- An incessant drinker with an immensely high alcohol tolerance, even for someone of his size. This explains the scene in the movie where Nancy goes to the fridge and pulls out two beers, hesitates with a smirk, and then pulls out more beer from the fridge.
- Would often collect the trench coats of the people he kills, especially if he lost or heavily damaged the one he was wearing. Before killing the person, he usually says "That there is one damn fine coat you're wearing."
[edit] Movie Appearance
He is played by Mickey Rourke in the film adaptation; Rourke took to the role despite the heavy amount of make-up work required and the minimal use of sets and even other actors. Because of the speed at which the film was shot (and the fact that most of the cast who appeared in multiple stories hadn't yet been cast), several of the people Rourke is seen interacting with weren't necessarily there during the day it was shot. During the scenes at Kadie's, he never met or interacted with Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen or Jessica Alba, all of whom were yet to be cast or scheduled for filming (Those scenes were all shot on different days several months after.). Similarly, Rutger Hauer and Elijah Wood never met Rourke either. Hauer was one of the last people to be cast and his scene was shot months after The Hard Goodbye had finished principal photography. Wood and Rourke were shot fighting each other's respective stunt doubles.
Also, on the Sin City DVD, Frank Miller commented that "After [the interview] with Rourke, I was only able to get down one note: 'He is Marv!'"
[edit] Other Notes
In 1999, his likeness was captured in the form of three McFarlane Toys action figures, they all depict scenes from "The Hard Goodbye." One comes with the severed head of Kevin (said to be that of artist Geof Darrow) and a gun while the other, another figure was made with plasters on his face, the other has open wounds, the latter also comes in black and white a gun while the other, known as "Death Row Marv", which comes with an electric chair. As it was battery operated, when activated, Marv's eyes lit up in red while a voice chip gives the famous line, "Is that the best you can do, you pansies?"
Death Row Marv was comparably rare to most other action figures on the market, as it was offered exclusively to comic book specialty stores and was not made available to larger chains such as Toys R Us and Walmart. Despite the fact that this was a collectible marketed solely towards adults, it caused a considerable amount of controversy. [1]
In 2005, the license for Sin City toys has been acquired by NECA, who has also done their own versions of "Death Row Marv", although these will not likely be eliciting the same amount of controversy, given the mainstream acceptance of Sin City due to the successful film release.
| Sin City | |
|---|---|
| Yarns | The Hard Goodbye | A Dame to Kill For | The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories | Silent Night | The Big Fat Kill | That Yellow Bastard | Daddy's Little Girl | Lost, Lonely, & Lethal | Sex & Violence | Just Another Saturday Night | Family Values | Hell and Back (a Sin City Love Story) | Booze, Broads, & Bullets |
| Films | Sin City | Sin City 2 (in production) |
| Characters | Marv | Jack Rafferty | Nancy Callahan | John Hartigan | Dwight McCarthy | Wallace | Miho | Kevin | Cardinal Roark | Ava Lord | Junior/That Yellow Bastard | Senator Roark | The Girls of Old Town | List of characters from Sin City |
| People | Frank Miller | Robert Rodriguez |
