PowerBoy
Description
PowerBoy was a comic book that is popular in Odyssey. The fan base for the comic series is headed by the biggest PowerBoy fan of them all: Wooton Bassett, who is also the secret author (as revealed in #516: “Bassett Hounds”). In #640: “Rights, Wrongs, and Winners”, the real author was publicly revealed. It is published by Breathtaking Press and boasted over 150,000 readers in late 2007 (#629: “The Highest Stakes, Part 2”). It has now been replaced by the Captain Absolutely comics, which are also written by Wooton.
Characters
The main character in the series is PowerBoy, a Superman-type character, whose secret hideout is concealed in his house. Its rather unique entrance is revealed when PowerBoy's favorite book, The Exhaustive Guide to Turnips is taken off the bookshelf in his house. PowerBoy's former accomplice (now enemy) is Dr. Ichabodia. Other characters include 'PowerGirl', 'The Dark Invader', and 'Beth the Barbarian' (secretly Liz the Librarian-also PowerBoy's love interest). Filo Foil is based off of Harlow Doyle, and there is a character based on Connie Kendall. Another character is revealed in #617: “The Other Side of the Glass, Part 2”, known as Omegaman (PowerBoy #49), who vanished into thin air.
Plots
PowerBoy has been in numerous scrapes, including "holding onto a hard-hearted ostrich, and not being sucked into a blender to be made into a giant milkshake." Once he had to escape from the Tweezers of Doom, and came out of it alive, but with his eyebrows a little worse for wear. He has previously been held hostage by a giant cream puff. He once escaped from Dr. Ichabodia's torture chair by using his knowledge of origami to make a chain saw to cut himself loose.
Symbols
PowerBoy has exactly one hundred twenty-one symbols, used sort of like a secret code throughout the series. One of these symbols was featured in #616: “The Other Side of the Glass, Part 1”, #617: “The Other Side of the Glass, Part 2”, and #618: “The Other Side of the Glass, Part 3”. The series also seems to be a bit of a metaphor for the Christian life, such as when PowerBoy tried on the new power-suit even though Dr. Ichabodia told him not to, which is alluding to God telling Christians not to do certain things, explained by Wooton.
Whit explains that he saw "a Greek letter" that looked like the symbol for "HELP!". Connie described it as a "figure eight with a harpoon through it." Bernard said that it looked like a curvy, squiggly thing.
Other symbols in the PowerBoy comics include "Don't look up!", "Be wary of the purple lizards", and "Warning! Arch-nemesis in crystallic fusion dormancy!"
Status
Due to copyright issues, Power Boy was eventually replaced by Captain Absolutely, who was another one of Wooton's comic-book characters. For the full explanation, see Captain Absolutely.
Trivia
PowerBoy appears in the Wooton’s House Mural at Whit's End (Colorado Springs).
Appearances
- #472: “Welcoming Wooton”
- #510: “For the Fun of It”
- #516: “Bassett Hounds” (mentioned)
- #551: “Stars in Our Eyes”
- #563: “Tuesdays with Wooton”
- #585: “The Poor Rich Guy”
- #616: “The Other Side of the Glass, Part 1”
- #617: “The Other Side of the Glass, Part 2”
- #618: “The Other Side of the Glass, Part 3”
- #628: “The Highest Stakes, Part 1”
- #629: “The Highest Stakes, Part 2”
- #640: “Rights, Wrongs, and Winners”
- “#??? B-TV Live!”
Resources
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