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Quote1 As long as I'm going to make a fool of myself, I might as well look the part. Quote2
Myron Victor src

Merryman is a member of the Inferior Five.

Originally a native of Earth-Twelve, before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Merryman was heir to a lineage of heroism. However, all he wanted to be was a cartoonist. When disaster threatened his new home and his aging parents were forced to become heroes once again, he became Merryman in the hopes of saving them. [1] He moved in with his grandfather, retired hero Yellowjacket. [2] Using Yellowjacket's old crime-fighting car and with the children of his parents' teammates, he formed the Inferior Five which helped keep Earth-Twelve safe. After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, elements of the Inferior Five's adventures were incorporated into the new, unified reality.

Merryman and the Inferior Five met Animal Man when Animal Man got banished to Comic Book Limbo. Merryman explained to him how and why they were there. He directed Animal Man around and told him where to go to.

However, in the wake of the Infinite Crisis, Merryman's adventures were removed from reality. Now existing as a concept, he was banished to Limbo. He believes that he was "forgotten". When the universe of Earth-51 was removed from realspace and sent to Limbo, he, along with many other inhabitants of Limbo, made their home there. Since titles were useless in Limbo, he called himself the King of Limbo and put himself in charge. As a resident of Limbo, his memory began to slowly seep away.[3]

All of this lasted until the Final Crisis, when a shiftship containing Superman crashed on Earth-51 with a few allies. Merryman tried to advise them on their new status, but they were adamant on their plan to escape. He tried to talk his way onto their ship, claiming he had "a talent for gritty drama no-one ever thought to exploit", but he was stuck on Limbo with the rest of the forgotten. Soon, Mandrakk the Dark Monitor's Echo of Midnight unexpectedly came to Limbo and brought along his forces of shadow demons to consume Limbo. Merryman and the denizens of Limbo valiantly battled the alien forces. Before running into battle, Merryman asked Superman to promise to remember him and the others that even though no one else does, in which the Man of Steel promises.[4]

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Abilities


  • Although this character was originally introduced as an inhabitant of DC's Pre-Crisis Earth-Twelve reality, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

Merry Man, who was originally going to be named Wonderful Man, was written as the son of Patriot and Lady Liberty who were themselves based on Uncle Sam and Miss America, respectively. These weren't originally DC characters, as they were merely purchased by DC from the Quality Comics catalogue when the original publisher went out of business. Although it should be noted Patriot and Lady Liberty are actually a blend of many highly patriotic wartime heroes from the Golden Age era.

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Footnotes


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