Life Is Anything But A Dream

There have no doubt been any number of incidental characters in comics stories who were introduced to bring focus to either the lives of the more central characters or a plot slowly building to a crisis, while at times both conditions would apply. Such was the case in 1965 with a young man named Thomas Gideon, who got the short end of the stick by having the misfortune of being the son of Gregory Gideon, a man obsessed with the acquisition of both money and power to the detriment of having any substantive relationship with his family. Gideon's impatience, however, made him his own worst enemy--and to fast track that acquisition, he made a deal with his competitors to bring about the defeat of the Fantastic Four, a goal which only widened the rift between himself and those closest to him.

In the end, of course, the tables were turned on Gideon, who swore to make restitution as well as renounce his fortune in order to begin making amends to his family. But a tragic incident would effectively rescind his change of heart, and turn his attention toward preserving the lives of both himself and his son--and if that led to the acquisition of supreme power for himself, so much the better.

Yet this time, Gideon's plans met with not only defeat, but death--leaving Thomas an orphan in 1973, in the temporary care of those who had given his father the second chance that he squandered.

However, the FF were caught up in a bizarre twist of reality initiated by Slugger Johnson, one of Gideon's henchmen, with the help of the alien known as the Shaper of Worlds. Once the FF prevailed, the Shaper made provisions for dealing with the man from whose mind sprung the "dream"--while also turning his attention to the fate of Thomas.

And, strictly speaking, Thomas indeed returned to reality, as the Shaper promised--but while that return would occur in only two years' time, it would take roughly a decade for you and I to be made aware of it.

Which signals the return of yet another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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Whatever happened to Thomas Gideon?

In a seemingly unrelated tale in the pages of Incredible Hulk, we see the 1975 debut of a new character--a man who arrives on nothing less than the end of a rainbow to bring happiness at last to the life of the Hulk. It seems like something that could only happen in a dream--and with that indeed being the case, we didn't need to look far for the cause.

The Shaper, of course, speaks of the Hulk, who found himself in a sub-atomic world where the dreams of Nazi war criminal Otto Kronsteig were given form by the alien. That day, the Shaper's encounter with the Hulk proved pivotal to the direction the Shaper would choose to explore new tangents for the use of his power; and now, as we've seen, Glorian has provided focus for him in that respect.

Naturally, the figure of Glorian wouldn't seem at all familiar to you beyond that of a new character--but when the Shaper returns to Earth in 1982 with Glorian at his side, we see that writer Bill Mantlo has taken advantage of Len Wein's original background for Glorian (or, more to the point, the lack thereof) to make use of another character who, long ago, was taken notice of by the Shaper.

With Glorian still at his side, the Shaper has clearly discarded any intent he once had of returning Thomas to Earth, at least as himself--while Thomas himself has been shifted from the role of benefactor to that of protégé and following in the Shaper's footsteps (er, tread tracks).

But Glorian's field test which was meant to graduate him from student to a full-fledged Shaper of Worlds proves to be a disaster when he loses control of the dreams of those he had meant to make happy--including those of the Hulk, who erupts in fury and lashes out at the townspeople who were collectively used for Glorian's accreditation. Finally, the Shaper steps in and restores everyone's state of mind to that which existed before Glorian's arrival--and he and his pupil depart, with Glorian questioning what it is that he and the Shaper are truly offering those they encounter.

Nor does Glorian have any better luck in 1989 with the Hulk's equally dangerous incarnation of Joe Fixit--possibly the most fierce example of what happens when the dreamer discovers that what he thought was reality is instead artificial happiness at his expense, the humiliation made worse at having been made aware of it by the alter ego he despises.

The final scene pictured here truly would have represented a piteous end for Thomas, who in 1973 had found himself suddenly swept up in the existence of the Shaper only to meet such a brutal end to a life that was filled with little but loss and suffering. But with writer Peter David including Glorian in a seven-issue story arc, even the raging fists of the Hulk are not enough to consign the character to death this day.

In the end, however, Glorian fails to make the Hulk "see the light," as he puts it--and the Shaper collects him and departs. In future appearances, Glorian would go on to be featured in titles such as Generation X, the Annihilation series of stories, Silver Surfer, and who knows where else that rainbow of his will take him.

Despite several writers obviously having taken an interest in him, it's hard to see Glorian having come this far, by simply becoming a human-Shaper and turning others' dreams into "reality"--an ability we've seen mimicked in one way or another by other characters here and there, with Glorian bringing nothing new to that particular table aside from his mode of transportation as well as his association with the Shaper. But on the other hand, it's quite a lot of mileage accumulated by Thomas Gideon, a character whose future was uncertain until both Mantlo and the Shaper picked up and reassembled the pieces of his shattered life.