I just happened upon an old edition of Phillip Wylie's Gladiator -- a 1930 novel that was one of the inspirations for Superman. (It's the 1957 Avon edition... and I got it for $1.50!) I'll be reading it soon, and I'll let you know what I think!
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I'm looking forward to hearing that, Rob. There's a website devoted to the novel here which has page on the covers and blurbs of the book's different editions and an introductory note by the author from a 1930 edition. The text of the book can be found at Internet Archive. I haven't gotten around to reading it myself (I read a few bits of it as a teen). I mean to some day.
A movie version starring Joe E. Brown appeared in 1938. I've not seen it. Apparently it was a comedy college football movie.
Cool -- thanks, Luke! In the cover gallery, my edition is listed as Avon T-155. I love his descriptions of the different editions and cover art!
I got a copy of the book for Christmas, but I read it maybe three times my freshman year in college. I've been trying to find the movie for a while now, but I've never seen it.
Apparently it was included in a collection called Joe E. Brown Comedy Collector's Set, which according to Amazon was a 2006 region 1 release. (A hat tip to the IMDB for my knowledge of this.)
Gladiator AKA Hugo Danner was absorbed by Roy Thomas for DC in Young All Stars as the father of Iron Munro. They also did a quick adaption of the novel in YAS #10 (Ma'88). Danner himself showed up in YAS #28-31.
Marvel also did an incomplete adaption of Gladiator but called him "Man-God".
I've actually read Gladiator twice.
I first picked up a paperback copy of Gladiator about thirty-five years ago; that's when I first read it. A few years ago, I remembered that I hadn't finished it, though---I had never gotten around to finishing the last two or three chapters. So I read it again, that time from cover to cover.
Three decades makes a mighty big difference in perspective. The first time around, I recall reading it was like slogging through a mudbog. A novel, or any work of fiction for that matter, should have a rising action, either in the drama of the events or in the personal development of the lead character. Thirty-five years ago, I perceived neither. On my last reading, with older eyes, I found there is a slow rise in the first half or so, peaking during Hugo Danner's World-War activities. This is when he discovers that he is invulnerable to nearly all devices of man. Also, he succombs to rage when the war exacts a personal toll. The consequences of that rage to the German forces are terrible and devastating.
But, after that crescendo, the rise levels out and the tale seems to meander after that, treating Hugo to new experiences but never really building anything out of them.
It's a darker tale than one would expect of such a character. Hugo Danner is not especially overjoyed to be able to do things beyond the ken of ordinary men, but he's more than willing to take advantage of his exceptional strength and indestructability.
And he spends a lot of the book brooding over his lot in life. The last third of the novel devotes itself to Danner's efforts to "find himself" (a concept which I have always found absurd).
Wylie's style of writing is a bit ponderous---typical of the era---but not prohibitively so. Still, his narrative structure could stand a bit more Hemingway-style terseness.
Back in 2005, Wildstorm published a four-issue adaptation of Gladiator, titled Legend, written by Howard Chaykin and drawn by the legendary Russ Heath. The story was upated from the 1930s to the 1970s (so Hugo Danner's war service was in Vietnam rather than World War I). It's the only version of the story I've read, but Danner here is a super-strong guy, but he's no hero.
Cool!
Phillip, the Young All-Stars connection was how I first heard of Gladiator. I vaguely remember the Legend series from a few years ago, CK; I just checked and it's not available on Comixology yet.
Thanks for your reminiscences, Commander!
And yeah. George, there's a lot of sexytime implied in the cover copy!