Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion: Beast Man!
Before we begin, one item of note: I’ve added links to all the bios in my list of MOTUC reviews, so you can check any bio whenever you want.
BEAST MAN
Real Name: Raqquill Rqazz
After being banished from his home in the Vine Jungle, the beast man named Raqquill Rqazz joined up with a young alchemist named Keldor™ during a skirmish in the Berserker Islands. Like others of his race, Rqazz has the ability to control beasts and monsters. He currently uses this particular talent as chief henchmen to Skeletor®, the Overlord of Evil™.
Portrait art source: “The Vengeance of Skeletor” minicomic
Beast Man was the second bio, and the first “real name.” What is there to say about “Raqquill Rqazz”–except I’m glad I don’t have to say it out loud like Pixel Dan did in the RG podcast? Obviously there’s an attempt at an onomatopoeic thing going on–try to the say the name aloud and you’re basically grunting like, well, a beast. (Side note: MechaShiva and I did a little satire on ol’ Raqquill a while back.)
But I suppose you want an actual opinion on the name? All right. In the RG podcast, Emiliano Santalucia (artist for the Millennium MOTU comic) suggested Mattel wanted the real names so they could have something better than “Clawful” and “Two-Bad” for a potential movie script to use, and I’d thought of that myself. But the simplest answer is often the right one, and I think The Powers That Be may have just thought it would be an amusing treat for fans, in the spirit of the G.I. Joe “codenames” from the 1980s.
The first sentence of the bio summarizes the story of Beast Man’s Icons of Evil one-shot comic from the Millennium era. In the RG podcast, much was made of Keldor being referred to as an “alchemist,” with some getting stuck on the medieval definition of an alchemist–i.e., a scholar who seeks a method of turning cheap metals into gold. I appreciate the effort to honor historical and philological accuracy, but I think at this point, in the post-D&D world of commercial fantasy, “alchemy” is often used as a general term to describe “the study of the dark arts,” and that’s how it’s used here. Yes, it’s a bit inaccurate, and “sorcerer” would have worked just fine, but I think the writer just wanted to emphasize that Keldor was something of an amateur at this point in his career.
The rest of the bio just details Beast Man’s abilities and his allegiance to Skeletor. It’s a shame it doesn’t reference the fact that Beast Man can’t control dragons, since that’s one of the few unique details about the character we’ve learned in any incarnation of MOTU.
So yeah–not a whole lot to discuss here. Next up: Stratos!
Heli
@d. verburg: And my new canon is established.
dayraven
@Snarf! Snarf!: i agree here on the definition of alchemist as "evil potion maker." cuz "mystickal roofie guy" sounds pervie.
if the "beast men" can all control comics, what if more than one tries to enslave the same dog?
also, on the eternian map, they are the "berserk islands" which sounds dangerous because how the fuck do you appease an island that's gone berserk? on the other hand, the berserker islands are the homes of a pack of berserkers, i keep my crippled ass off that island, i should be golden.
d. verburg
dudes, i always sort of thought that "beast man," "mer-man," "trap jaw," etc were just derogatory names that skeletor gave his henchmen because he is a bully and a jerk. he can't be bothered to remember their real names or respect them enough, so he is just like "uh, you… beast man, go fetch my dental floss"
"you smell like a fish… mer-man. now mop the evil zoo of doom! it smells worse than… clawful down there. get it? he has claws and he is simply /awful/. mwaha haha hehehe!"
and he is super proud of the demeaning nicknames he gave them
Snakeeyes22
@DiegoSanchez
J'onn wasn't all that special until all the other Martians died, and he's also unique as the only Martian on Earth. Maybe, I'm not sure what's been added/retconned or whatever.
I can see where you're going though, maybe with a comparison to Hal Jordan being special among a Corps of thousands.
Maybe if we could see what the other beast men are all about, we can get a better grip of Raquel's character and abilities. Have we ever seen a generic beast man?
Jason
Amen to that Lemonjuice_McGee
Lemonjuice_McGee
I think we can all agree on one thing: The "Beserker Islands" sound like a fairly bad-ass place. 🙂
MegaGearX
I think Gygor's people rule over/enslaved the Beast Men in the Vine Jungle. R'Quill might have been too dangerous, so Gygor banished him.
PrfktTear
Raqquill Rqazz is better than "Biff Beastman " from one of those MOTU Golden Book storybooks which revealed that Beastman, along with Evelyn Powers and T.E. Scope crashed on Skeletor's planet of Infinita and were mutated/given powers.
When I see the word alchemist, I guess I automatically think of the medieval definition. One of my favorite books is "The Alchemist" though it has little to do with turning lead into gold.
Snarf! Snarf!
other than his name, I'm ok with Raquel's… I mean Beastman's bio.
on the Future Bonehead Alchemist:
I don't go with the dude turning Lead into gold definition. I also go with the studying the arcane arts/ Not plain magic, but arcane chemistry as well… (sounds better than potion making)
I see it as Keldor not being Naturally gifted in the arcane, but that he became good at it the hard way.
Replicant
While I don't always agree with or like the bios, I think they're a nice touch. They remind me a lot of the G.I. Joe file cards and it's a little something extra to have for my collection.
DiegoSanches
I don't care about this. It's not the abillity or power that makes the character.
Think Martian Manhunter. All martians can use telepathy and morph, but there is only one J'onn J'onzz.
So, all Beastmen can control beasts, but Raquill has the unique personality and story that made him being exiled from his tribe and joined forces with Keldor.
Poe
That's true–I forgot about that, but that was also brought up during the Roast Gooble discussion. It's true, the idea that all Beast Men can control beasts and monsters removes some of the uniqueness of Beast Man, and it's a part of the bio I more or less ignore (so much that I forgot to mention it, apparently).
bobshumway
One thing that I don't like about this bio, and I know this is something people have complained about before, is that all "beast men" can control animals and it's not a power that's unique to Rqazz.
I mean I guess the same can be said for Stratos, he's not like he's the only one of his race that could fly and that's his only power.