Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze

I loved Doc Savage as a kid.
I think I read every Doc Savage novel that was reprinted by Bantam Books in the 1960s and 1990s.
Doc was a superhero...kinda.
He didn't wear a costume, and he had powers beyond those of mortal men, but not really.
Now through DC comics "First Wave", a whole new generation is getting introduced to The Man of Bronze via a new world that has pulp and noir heroes, but no super-powers.
So let's go back and look at this Olympian figure that inspired many of yesterday's (and today's) super heroes.

The Doc Savage Magazine made it's debut in March 1933, published by Street and Smith Publications.
The character himself was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic, but after that, Doc was handled by Lester Dent.
Dent wrote under the name Kenneth Robeson and Dent became a bit of a "Doc Savage" himself after the books started making money, studying technology, getting his amateur radio and pilot license, mountain climbing, passing his electricians' and plumbers' trade exams and he traveled enough to get a membership in the Explorers Club (a sister organization of the National Geographic Society).

Although another pulp character The Avenger is credited to Kenneth Robeson, it was just a "house name" and The Avenger was actually created by Paul Ernst.

Clark Savage, Jr. (I wondered if that was where Clark Kent came from, but it seems both characters were named after movie icon Clark Gable) ) wasn't like Batman (created in 1939), Doc was a hero and did good because it was the right thing to do.
Forget the anti-heroes that would come later.
Doc was one of the good guys, no question.
He was a Jack of All Trades and a master of them all.
Doc was a physician, a surgeon, a scientist, an adventurer, an inventor, an explorer, a researcher, and a musician.
Later the cult hero Buckaroo Banzai ( a hero inspired by Doc) would exhibit all of these traits as well.

This is Doc Savage's oath:
"Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man."

Not a bad mantra for today huh?

When Doc was born, his father Clark Savage gathered a group of the greatest scientists of the time to train Jr.
He was also trained in martial arts by the masters, and his body was honed to near super-human levels.
What Olympic level athletes had to strain to do, Doc could do with ease.
When in deep thought, there was a soft trilling sound that seemed to not only come from Doc, but also from all around him.

And addition to all the mental and physical training, Doc was a big man, well over six feet tall. He was muscular, but had the kind of build so that you didn't really realize how big Doc was until he was beside a "normal" man.
His skin was a really dark tan (bronze, hence the name) and his hair was a slightly darker shade.
And Doc's eyes were flecked with gold that seemed at times to swirl, almost hypnotically.
Bad guys usually didn't like maintaining eye contact with him for very long.

Doc lived up on high like some Olympian God, up over New York on the 86th floor of a New York City skyscraper.
His 86th floor HQ was reached via a private high-speed elevator.
I don't think it was ever actually said, but you pretty much new it was the Empire State Building, (the 86th floor there is an observation deck) .
Interestingly, in the Percy Jackson series, Mount Olympus is located over the Empire State Building....and can be reached by a "special elevator".

Even though Doc was a Bronze Boy Scout, some of his methods might seem a little harsh today to some people.
Doc never went out of his way to kill ( he had a firm code against the taking of human life) and when he caught a criminal mastermind, rather than jailing him, the evil-doer was sent to a hospital where Doc performed brain surgery on them that took out their evil tendencies and made them a productive member of society again.
This technique was referenced in Truman Capote's book, In Cold Blood.

Doc was surrounded by a group of friends and brothers-in-arms that helped Doc on his crusade against evil.
"Monk" Mayfair a brilliant chemist, "Ham" Brooks, a skilled attorney,  "Renny" Renwick, a construction engineer, electrical engineer  "Long Tom" Roberts, and archaeologist and geologist, "Johnny" Littlejohn.
And occasionally Doc's beautiful cousin Patricia "Pat" Savage would accompany them on their adventures, despite Doc's best efforts to stop her.

You can find pieces of Doc in a lot of the heroes that followed.
I mentioned Buckaroo Banzai earlier.
And Batman's quest to be trained by masters before embarking on his crime fighting career echoes Doc's early years.
Besides sharing the name Clark with Superman, Doc had his own Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic.
And then you have "The Man of Bronze" versus "The Man of Steel".
You could also argue that Doc and his "Fabulous Five" inspired The Challengers of the Unknown, The Fantastic Four and even the Justice League.

Doc Savage was made into a movie in 1975 called Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, produced by the legendary George Pál and starring TV's Tarzan Ron Ely.
(If you have read Philip José Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, the guy that played Tarzan playing Doc is kinda funny)
The movie was a box office and critical flop.
To tell you the truth, I liked it in 1975, but I don't know how I'd do watching it now.

In 2009, it was announced that a Doc Savage movie would again be attempted, produced by Neal Moritz (I Am Legend, Made of Honor, Not Another Teen Movie and Evan Almighty) and Ori Marmur ( interestingly the executive producer for the new Green Hornet movie) for Sony Pictures.
Shane Black (who did the screen play for Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 2, Last Action Hero and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) has been confirmed as the screen writer.
To tell you the truth, even if they make the movie picture perfect, I don't see how it will do well.
Doc was a man for a simpler time.
He was a hero with no real faults.
You couldn't corrupt him, he didn't kill, he didn't lie, he didn't mope about past failures (He didn't fail), and he wasn't driven by tragedy and revenge.

Maybe it's best to just leave Doc in his mythical headquarters on the 86th floor, looking down over us and protecting us.