Impossible Man

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The Impossible Man is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #11 (February 1963), and was created by writer Stan Lee and writer/artist Jack Kirby.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Impossible Man has been featured in other Marvel-endorsed products such as action figures, arcade and video games, animated television series, and merchandise such as trading cards.

The Impossible Man is a Poppupian from the planet Poppup and has shape-changing abilities. The character is primarily used for comedy, as he is portrayed as a lonely, attention-seeking alien that often annoys those around him, especially the Fantastic Four. Over the years, the Impossible Man created a wife called The Impossible Woman and also had a son named Adolf Impossible.

The Impossible Man has made various appearances in Marvel animated series, such as the 1978 and 1994 Fantastic Four series as well as Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.

Publication history

The Impossible Man first appeared in Fantastic Four #11 (February 1963), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. According to Lee in a 1970 interview, this "was the worst-selling Fantastic Four we've ever had". In Lee's opinion, the green alien on the cover was "too unusual and too frivolous."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

After a long absence, Impossible Man returned in Fantastic Four #175 (October 1976) and visited the Marvel Comics office. At the end of the story, he was adopted by the Fantastic Four. This time, the character became popular.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He remained a regular part of the comic until #195 (June 1978), when Sue told him that she was tired of him, and he turned into a bee and flew away.

Originally, there were no limits to Impossible Man's transforming abilities - he convincingly imitated Sue Richards in Fantastic Four #175 (October 1976) and Jimmy Carter in Marvel Two-in-One #27 (May 1977). The New Mutants Annual #3 (September 1987) introduced the limitation that all of his transformations share his default color scheme of green and purple.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Fictional character biography

1960s

When the Impossible Man first appeared, he was different from previous guest stars in that he was not a villain. The team first meet him at the Flamingo restaurant when they are summoned there to investigate a disturbance. Written by Lee to be a prankster and hedonist, the Impossible Man claimed to belong to the alien race of Poppupians from planet Poppup in the "Tenth Galaxy", who all share a collective consciousness and the ability to shapeshift, as their planet is so dangerous they have the ability to evolve very quickly.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Seeking amusement, the character visits Earth for a vacation by turning himself into a spaceship, talking of a Poppup Tourist Bureau. After finding the superhero team the Fantastic Four and realizing nobody else on Earth has his power (therefore concluding he is the most powerful being on Earth), he constantly harasses them until they decide to ignore him and tell other people to do the same, forcing the Impossible Man to leave as he finds Earth so boring, and saying Earth will never get their tourist business. He gets his name after the Thing claims he is "impossible".<ref>Fantastic Four #11 (February 1963)</ref>

1970s

The character does not appear again until 1976. Acting as a deus ex machina in a storyline involving the cosmic entity and world-devourer Galactus, the Impossible Man convinces him to consume Poppup instead of Earth, causing Galactus to seemingly die from 'cosmic indigestion'. Since the Poppupians were a shared consciousness they were happy to sacrifice their planet to stop Galactus, knowing that their culture would live on in the embodiment of its most adventurous member.<ref name=FF175>Fantastic Four #175 (October 1976)</ref> The Impossible Man then makes a humorous appearance at the offices of Marvel Comics, where he causes havoc until Stan Lee promises to give him his own title.<ref>Fantastic Four #176 (November 1976)</ref>

He offers peripheral assistance to the Fantastic Four when they are trapped in the Negative Zone by the Frightful Four, a team of their enemies.<ref>Fantastic Four #177-178 (December 1976-January 1977)</ref> The Impossible Man impersonates Jimmy Carter on the day of his inauguration. The Impossible Man briefly takes Carter's place to foil an attempt to enslave him during an adventure with the Thing and the cyborg Deathlok.<ref>Marvel Two-In-One #27 (May 1977)</ref> He later saves the Invisible Woman from a fall and becomes fascinated with Earth movies.<ref>Fantastic Four #183 (June 1977)</ref><ref>Fantastic Four #184-185 (July - August 1977)</ref> When returning to the Baxter Building, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, the Impossible Man is surprised and defeated by the villain Klaw, who, in an alliance with the Molecule Man, attempts to kill the Fantastic Four.<ref name="Fantastic Four' 1977">Fantastic Four #186 (September 1977)</ref> During the course of the storyline, the character recovers and, courtesy of his abilities, mimics and defeats Klaw in turn<ref name=":0">Fantastic Four #187 (October 1977)</ref> and assists the Fantastic Four in stopping the Molecule Man.<ref>Fantastic Four #188 (November 1977)</ref> The character continued his trend of general disruption during a visit to Hollywood with the Invisible Girl.<ref>Fantastic Four #193-195 (April-July 1978)</ref>

1980s

After helping the Thing defeat several villains at a party, the Impossible Man observes the Thing with his partner Alicia Masters and becomes lonely. The character then decides to reproduce - here an asexual process - by splitting in two. This creates fellow Poppupian the Impossible Woman.<ref>Marvel Two-In-One #60 (February 1980)</ref> The pair later attempt to recreate their race and create the Impossible Kids, with the entire "family" visiting the Thing.<ref>Marvel Two-in-One #86</ref> When the Impossible Woman is missing, the character hires private investigator Jessica Drew to locate her,<ref>Spider-Woman #45 (August 1982)</ref> and has an encounter with the mutant X-Men after stealing artifacts from Earth to settle a supposed family dispute with the other members of his race.<ref>The Uncanny X-Men Annual #7 (December 1983)</ref>

More comedic adventures followed, with the Impossible Man engaging in a shapeshifting competition with Warlock,<ref name=autogenerated1>The New Mutants Annual #3 (January 1987)</ref> causing havoc on an alternate universe version of Earth,<ref name=":1">Excalibur #14 (November 1989)</ref> and trying to obtain the movie rights to the autobiography of professional sidekick Rick Jones.<ref>Avengers Spotlight #25 (November 1989)</ref>

1990s

The Impossible Man finds and teases the cosmic being the Silver Surfer on two occasions, pleading for him to develop a sense of humor before battling the titan Thanos.<ref>Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #33 (January 1990) & #36 (April 1990)</ref> The character returns to Earth and causes more mischief,<ref>Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular #1 & 2 (August 1990 & 1991)</ref> encounters the hero Daredevil while looking for a lost child,<ref>Marvel Comics Presents #91 (December 1991)</ref> starts a bar fight,<ref>Marvel Comics Presents #97 (June 1992)</ref> watches the Eternal Makkari win a galactic marathon,<ref>Quasar #58 (May 1994)</ref> and invites various otherwise un-contacted heroes and supervillains to the wedding of Rick Jones.<ref>The Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #417 (June 1994)</ref>

After a brief encounter with the young superhero team the New Warriors,<ref>Marvel Comics Presents #162 (September 1994)</ref> the character enlists the aid of mutant team X-Force to instill some pride in his children,<ref>X-Force & Cable Annual (December 1995)</ref> and enters into a wager with the alternate universe imp Mister Mxyzptlk.<ref>Silver Surfer/Superman (November 1996)</ref>

2000s

The Impossible Man and the Poppupians make a cameo appearance in Noh-Varr's origin story.<ref>Marvel Boy #5 (December 2000)</ref>

The Impossible Man returns to Earth disguised as the Silver Surfer, and after teasing the hero Spider-Man warns of an alien invasion. The Impossible Man's race are also revealed to have survived, with their consciousness stored inside the character. With the aid of the Fantastic Four, the aliens and the newly reborn Poppupians are transported off world, merging into one race on Spider-Man's suggestion.<ref>Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #1-4 (May-August 2007)</ref>

2010s

Later during the Chaos War, the Impossible Man confronts Mikaboshi, trying to humor and reason with him while shapeshifting in various forms to divert him, but the Chaos King tires of him and brutally dispatches him. Impossible Man's last words are "I thought we were just playing around..."<ref>Chaos War: Chaos King #1</ref>

Impossible Man returns to Earth where he witnesses a battle between Hulk, Red Hulk, and Xemnu and uses the Valizian Compounder to fuse the former two into the Compound Hulk. Impossible Man watches as the Compound Hulk fights Xemnu's minion Kluh, a smart version of the Gray Hulk.<ref>Hulk (vol. 2) #30 (April 2011)</ref>

Impossible Man is later shown to have a son named Adolf Impossible who has many of his father's fantastic powers and a more introverted personality. This causes Impossible Man to label Adolf as "entirely too possible" and plead with the Future Foundation to accept him and allow him to grow as a person.<ref>FF (vol. 2) #11</ref>

Powers and abilities

The Impossible Man's unique physiology enables him to take on virtually any form via molecular manipulation, an effect commonly accompanied by a "Pop!" sound. He can mimic the properties of objects or humanoid beings at will. Almost every feature the Impossible Man copies another superhuman's appearance and their powers, such as Thor,<ref>Fantastic Four Annual #3 (October 1965)</ref> Klaw,<ref name=":0" /> or even Wolverine.<ref>Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #31 (April 1990)</ref> He has the ability to travel through hyperspace across different universes, psionically levitate himself, and reproduce asexually. Additionally, he can survive in the vacuum of space by entering a low-metabolic state.<ref>The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #5 (May 1983)</ref>

The Impossible Man possesses total knowledge of Earth's popular culture.

Reception

In 2014, ComicBook.com ranked Impossible Man sixth in their "Top 10 Most Filmworthy Fantastic Four Villains" list.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Other versions

Wha...Huh?

Impossible Man appears in the spoof comic "Wha...Huh?" in the segment titled "What If Identity Crisis Happened in the Marvel Universe".<ref>Wha...Huh? #1 (January 2005)</ref>

The Cross-Time Caper

The Impossible Man appears in Excalibur, during the Cross-Time Caper. He has populated an analogue of the Earth with multiple twisted versions of the superheroes of the Marvel Universe. Galactus destroys this planet, deeming it "too silly to be allowed to exist", but Impossible Man later effortlessly restores it.<ref name=":1" />

In other media

Television

• Impossible Man appears in a self-titled episode of The New Fantastic Four, voiced by Frank Welker.<ref name="btva" />
• Impossible Man appears in the Fantastic Four (1994) episode "Hopelessly Impossible", voiced by Jess Harnell.<ref name="btva" />
• Impossible Man appears in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, voiced by Terry Klassen.<ref name="btva" />
• Impossible Man appears in The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced again by Jess Harnell.<ref name="btva">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Impossible Man appears in Avengers Assemble, voiced by Tom Kenny.<ref name="btva" /> This version possesses expanded transformation abilities that enable him to summon other entities and objects at will.
• Impossible Man appears in the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "Mission Impossible Man", voiced again by Tom Kenny.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="btva" /> This version possesses expanded transformation abilities that enable him to teleport as well as fuse others by teleporting them together.

Video games

Impossible Man appears as a mini-boss in Super Hero Squad Online.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="btva" />

External links

• Impossible Man at Marvel.com