Next time, Gadget, next time.

I'd like to reiterate a couple of things I've mentioned before on this blog. Some of you may remember my posts a couple of months ago about Six Flags mascot Mr. Six and the ultimate discovery of his identity. And more recently I pointed out that the Jack in the Box guy is pretty ghoulish himself. To a lesser extent the Burger King is sorta scary as well, but he's too hip and cartoony for it to really matter. The similarity here is people whose identities are hidden--cases where we don't know what the face behind the mask looks like at all. As I pointed out with Mr. Six, the mystery of a mask piques our curiosity and interest. The character becomes popular if for no other reason than that we have expended more mental energy on it thinking of what could be behind the mask. But the mystery inherent in masks often creates a sense of fear in audiences. We like knowing about things because it gives us a feeling of control over them. But when we face a masked character, it's an unknown, a wild card. We can't predict what they'll do. A masked face is a dreadfully impersonal, inhuman face, one capable of all sorts of dastardly deeds. That's why Darth Vader was such a popular and effective villain.

The problem inherent with masked characters is the natural urge to look behind the mask. And in many cases, it is revealed eventually what face is hiding back there. Unfortunately, that can often be the single most effective way to spoil a character. In the case of Darth Vader, I think Lucas pulled it off very well in Return of the Jedi. You realize very quickly that Vader is only being kept alive by the machine part of his person, and it is really no surprise when we see the pale, sickly countenance of Anakin Skywaler for the first time. Plus, it was necessary in this case for Luke to see his father's face and realize fully how weak a move it is to give in to the dark side of the Force. Then Lucas managed to add another aspect to the Darth Vader story by telling how he got that way. Darth Vader is one of the strongest pop culture images for the past couple of generations, and it is impossible for his metallic skeletal face overshadowing even the precocious child Anakin. And Revenge of the Sith did a wonderful job giving you the seemingly inevitable course of events that led to Anakin's downfall and transformation into Vader.

Another successful un-masking occurs in V for Vendetta. Now, I haven't seen the movie, but I read the graphic novel last week. V (the masked character you see on the posters) is a proponent of anarchy in post-nuclear late-1990's fascist London who trains a directionless young girl to be his symbolic heir in leading the people of London towards governing themselves. The story manages to relate to you his entire person except for his face or name. You get his past, his feelings, his purpose--and really, isn't that all you need to know? No, we want more, we want to connect with him. What is his name, what does he look like? So, of course, there must be some un-masking in the end, right? Yes and no. The girl discovers in the end that she must be behind the mask after V's death, further emphasizing the point that the views V espoused were far greater than any one person. That's a really good twist--it doesn't give us what we want, but it reminds us that we don't need to bother wanting it--aren't we already satisfied?

However, there are times when revealing what's behind the mask lessens the character. As I've mentioned before, the revelation of who Mr. Six is was sort of unimpressive. Danny Teeson, so what? I don't even know who that is or care. Mr. Six is cool as Mr. Six. But, so far as I can tell, the absolute biggest let-down was when the action figure for Dr. Claw (from Inspector Gadget) came out. You know, I remember seeing it on the pegs at K-Mart back about 14 years ago, but I didn't pester my mom to buy it for me. At least the packaging covered up his face so you'd have to buy it to find out. But I've since found it online, and trust me, Dr. Claw was way more cool and evil when he was just a couple of arms and the occasional leg. In my mind as a kid, all he was was just a couple of disembodied arms in a chair. Just arms would be scary. If two arms attack you, what do you do? There's no person there to control the arms, thus no person to punch in the gut, kick in the crotch, or hit their head to knock them out and stop the arms. And Dr. Claw's arms were covered in metal, so you can't make them bleed or break them. Unstoppable. Anyway, above is a picture of Dr. Claw unmasked, taken from Progressive Boink. Be disappointed. Be very disappointed.