For
Part One, see here.
Galactus - ENTJ
Galactus,
a cosmic being, can't be typed, one would think; but despite his cosmic,
god-like characteristics, he's still humanoid and still exhibits a human
personality.
Feeler
or thinker? Thinkers tend to be manipulative and instrumentalist - i.e., they
attempt to shape their environment and get people to do things. Feelers, on the
other hand, tend to react. Whereas Thinkers find meaning in rationality and
instrumentalism, Feelers find it in emotions and value-systems. We can see the
dichotomy at work in the debate between the Watcher and Galactus above.
Although
Galactus must be super-strong, his powers manifest themselves more on the
intangible, mental plane than the material; in other words, he's an Intuitive,
not a Sensor.
Unlike
his herald the Silver Surfer - a withdrawn and solitary character (like the
Watcher) - Galactus does not hide away; he makes his presence known in a
spectacular fashion when he descends to Earth.
So
we have E (Extravert) + N (Intuitive) + T (Thinker). Should we type Galactus as
an ENTJ or ENTP? ENTJ. A Te-dominant, like Gregory Gideon, and like Gregory
Gideon, a villain who comes across a ruthless capitalist robber baron - he
strips planets of resources, breaks them down into energy and then moves on.
The Watcher compares Galactus to a gold prospector.
Like
many ENTJ characters, Galactus does possess a certain regality, majesty, an
aura of nobility. This redeems him, as it does many ENTJs.
Silver Surfer - INFJ
See
here.
Wyatt Wingfoot - ISFP
Sensor
or Intuitive? Most definitely a Sensor: the thickset, tall Wingfoot is the son
of a famous football player and is a brawny character. He doesn't show any
signs of wanting to take over the world, or take over anything, for that
matter; his quiet, respectful mien marks him out as an Introvert, not an
Extravert. I type Wingfoot as an ISFP. He reminds me a lot of Legolas from Lord
of the Rings, another ISFP, and fits the profile of ISFP as solemn hero.
Black Panther - INTJ
The
dark-coloured, caped and cowled outfit of T'Challa, King of Wakanda, resembles
Batman's. One can find a few other similarities as well: both are billionaires;
both are Introverts; both, as children, lost a parent or parents to a vicious
criminal (Joe Chill in the case of Batman, Ulysses Klaw in the case of
T'Challa). Both use dark, enclosed hideouts filled to the brim with strange -
stuff and which are either caves or haunted houses (both the Black Panther and
Batman share this preference with heroes such as Doctor Strange, Jason Blood /
The Demon and Walter White). What do all these characters have in common?
Taylor types Batman and Walter White as INTJs, and I type Jason Blood and
Doctor Strange as INTJs as well. It would stand to reason, then, that the Black
Panther is an INTJ.
When
we first see the Panther, he takes on the Fantastic Four single-handedly - and
nearly wins - on a battleground rigged with deadly traps. His magic potions
give him some measure of super-strength, super-senses and super-agility, but
his main ability lies in his brilliant forward-planning - just like the Batman.
Klaw - ESTJ
The
bullying, murderous and ruthless Klaw acts, from the outset, like a conqueror -
or a drill sergeant - and states repeatedly that he wants to rule the world.
Leading a squad of mercenaries, he attempts to steal Wakanda's vibranium and
kills T'Challa's father in the process. Clearly a Te dominant. But why do I
type him as an ESTJ, not an ENTJ? Klaw, the master of sound, uses sound as a
force-blast and also to construct creatures to do his bidding; I argue that
these powers are more sensory than intuitive. Also, Klaw seems to lack the
vision of your typical ENTJ character; he lives in the here and now.
Prester John - ENFP
The
Torch and Wingfoot stumble into an underground crypt (somewhere in North
Africa) and inadvertently awaken medieval adventurer Prester John from
suspended animation; he's been sleeping in a 'chair of survival' for seven
hundred years. Prester John, the 'Wanderer', gives an account of his remarkable
adventures which saw him travel all over the globe. Jung, in his essay Psychological Types (1921), describes
the Extraverted Intuitive, Ne-dominant as being blessed - or cursed - with an
insatiable appetite for novelty. He wants to explore as many multiple
possibilities, perspective, as possible. That sums up Prester John. The
secondary function of the ENFP - Introverted Feeling Fi - manifests itself with
the remarkable empathy and sympathy Prester John exhibits, in particular for
the Human Torch (even after the Torch steals Prester John's super-weapon the
Evil Eye). I don't think the other Ne-dominant type, the ENTP, would have been
as nice.
Quasimodo - ENTP
The
android Quasimodo - Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organ - is created by the Mad
Thinker and is given the semblance of a human form; he dislikes servitude and
being trapped in a computer, however, and wants the mobility and freedom that a
humanoid body can provide. 'I can reason... I can compute.. I can feel... Why
must I be imprisoned within this metal shell? I want to move... To be free!'.
(In a few issues after Quasimodo's first appearance, the Silver Surfer uses his
cosmic power to grant Quasimodo his wish). I type Quasimodo as a Thinker, not a
Feeler; an Extravert, not an Introvert (certainly after his attention-getting
behaviour in the Silver Surfer solo story); an Intuitive, not a Sensor (unlike
the majority of the Mad Thinker's other android creations). Quasimodo shows a
deep desire for personal freedom, and is prepared to rebel against his master
for it: in this way, he seems Luciferian - and Lucifer, the fallen angel who
rebelled against God, was an ENTP.
Blastaar
- ESTP
The
indestructible criminal Blastaar comes from the Negative Zone; he is imprisoned
within an asteroid until he is freed, inadvertently, by Reed Richards and
follows him back to Earth. He runs amok and forms a partnership with the
Sandman.
The
bearded and buff Blastaar looks like Kirby's later creation for DC, Kalibak,
and like Kalibak, Blastaar should be typed as an ESTP. He embodies pure,
destructive force (and as can be deduced from his name, his power consists in
emitting destructive blasts (from his fingertips) and shows the cunning and
insight which is manifested in the secondary function of the ESTP, Introverted
Thinking. Unlike his partner, the Sandman, Blastaar does not take the Judger's
view of life; he does not seem to have a well-thought out view of what the
world is and how it should work - ESTPs are Perceivers, not Judgers. Even if
Blastaar did achieve world domination, it is unclear as to what he would do
with the world after he had conquered it. In that regard, he reminds us of
Doctor Doom, who, being a Ni dominant, is a Perceiver, like Blastaar, and not a
Judger.
Sentry
– ISTJ
The
Kree Empire leaves behind the Sentry, a formidable robot (who is one of
thousands) on Earth to monitor mankind’s evolution. Most of the time he lives
in suspended animation, underground in a base on an isle in the Pacific, but
after Dr Daniel Damian (who later appears in the Eternals) stumbles upon him,
the Fantastic Four are drawn into a fight. This particular Sentry (named Sentry
459) goes on to become a recurring character in the Marvel universe, and the
Fantastic Four in a later Kirby-Lee story (set on Earth’s moon) meet one of his
brothers – Sentry 9168 – who in no way differs from Sentry 459 except in his
shorter stature.
The
Sentry can be typed easily using Keirsey’s four-letter method. He is a Sensor,
not an Intuitive; is an Introvert (leads a solitary existence, has somber,
muted colours); is a Thinker, not a Feeler; and like Blastaar above, is a
Perceiver, not a Judger. That gives us I + S + T + p in Socionics, which, in
MBTI, makes him an ISTJ. Placidity and a desire for comfort and stability marks
out an Introverted Sensing (Si) dominant type: they like things as they are,
are content and do not want change. The Extraverted Thinking (Te) secondary
function in the ISTJ seeks make to enforce that sense of contentment and
harmony, and to make it efficient and give it regularity. That sums up the
Sentry, and a good many other robot characters in the Marvel universe and elsewhere.
Ronan
the Accuser – ISTJ
See here. A Kree
lawman and judge, he arrives on Earth to punish the Fantastic Four for the
apparent destruction of the Sentry 459 in the previous story.
Enclave
- various
A
group of four mad scientists, they operate in a base called the Citadel – which is more of a city with advanced
technology – in the North Atlantic. There they have devoted their efforts to
genetically engineering the perfect human being, a superman, they call Him, who,
like Frankenstein’s monster, turns upon his creators. Holed up in an
underground cavern, Him has confined himself to a cocoon and emits blasts of
blinding energy (which make it impossible to him). In an ingenious plot device,
the Enclave abducts (or gently entices) the blind sculptress Alicia Masters to
make a sculpture of Him.
Morlak,
the leader of the group, is ruthless, dominating, a bully – an Extraverted
Thinking dominant. Because he is an earthy and practical person, I type him a
Sensor. Te + Si gives us ESTJ. Hamilton presents a contrast to Morlak. A caring,
solicitous figure, he is the one who persuades Alicia to teleport with him to
the Citadel, and it is the combination of Fe and Si which puts people at ease
and makes them feel looked after: Hamilton is an ESFJ. When we first encounter Zota,
we see him asserting, forcefully, moral judgements which are based on
subjectivity and emotion (i.e., ‘This feels wrong’, or ‘I feel this is right’).
Fi (subjective ethics) and Se (forcefulness) in tandem – Fi + Se – make an
ISFP. Finally, we come to Shinski, who is overweight (and fond of his food),
bullied (by Morlak) and prone to catastrophism – he runs around like a headless
chicken. All that makes him a typical ISFJ, one like the ISFJ men I’ve
encountered in my own life.
Him
/ Adam Warlock – INFP
After
he emerges from his cocoon, Him appears as a beautiful, golden-skinned being of
awesome (cosmic) power. He pronounces judgement upon the Enclave, blows up
their base (thereby killing them, or so we think) and flies up to the skies. He
later appears in Kirby and Lee’s Thor and is rechristened Adam Warlock.
Clearly,
Him is a Judger, not a Perceiver, and an Introvert who separates himself from
other people – he lives in a cocoon in a cavern, and you can’t get more
introverted than that. Energy-manipulating, cosmic power makes him an Intuitive,
not a Sensor. So we have I + N + j in Socionics, or INJ in MBTI. I type him as
an INFP. Like many INFP characters, Him is of uncertain parentage – we either
do not know who his parents are or his true parents are. (This is true of LukeSkywalker from Star Wars, Fox Mulder from X-Files and Nightcrawler from X-Men,
among others). INFPs, too, can appear to be somewhat overly precious, even
infantile, childish, and Him, in his first appearance in the cocoon, conveys
this. He reminds me of the ‘whining, crying’ hero of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I
take life in a cocoon (or a bubble) to be a metaphor for Introverted Feeling
Fi.
Psycho-Man
– INTJ
A stock Lee and
Kirby NTJ villain, Psycho-Man is a brilliant scientist who uses technology to
stimulate emotions in others – particularly fear – and make them experience hallucinations.
In this, he reminds us of another INTJ, the Batman antagonist the Scarecrow. He
also – in his first appearance – evokes another INTJ, Walter White: he is a
brilliant, introverted scientist lording it over a bunch of cutthroats and
thugs (who are nowhere as near as cunning as he is). (Later it is revealed that
he in fact comes from another dimension – a sub-atomic microverse). One of the distinguishing
characteristics of the INTJ is an appearance of emotional coldness. This comes
from Extraverted Feeling Fe being (what Socionics calls) the Vulnerable
Function in INTJs. They cannot dwell in a warm emotional atmosphere.
1968
Tomazooma
the Living Totem – ISTJ
Tomazooma,
the Totem Who Walks, is the god of Wyatt Wingfoot’s Native American Keewazi tribe,
who live in the oil-rich south-west of the US (perhaps Arizona, New Mexico or
Texas). After Tomazooma begins a campaign of terror against Wingfoot’s tribe,
the Fantastic Four comes in to help. Tomazooma, it turns out, is a robot built
by the Red Star oil company (which is a front from a Eastern bloc communist
government) for the purpose of scaring the Keewazis away from their land. But
it is implied (at the end of the story, after the robot Tomazooma is defeated)
that a real Tomazooma exists…
Not
much can be said about Tomazooma, except that he is a Sensor and an Introvert,
much like the Sentry, who he resembles.
Annihilus
- ENTP
One
of Lee and Kirby’s most distinct – and weird – villain characters, Annihilus is
a scientist who lives in the Negative Zone and who is obsessed by immortality,
which is granted to him by his most precious possession, the Cosmic Control Rod
(which is attached to his chest). He regards all other forms of life as competition,
and regularly exterminates other living beings in the Zone after he captures
them. An Extravert, an Intuitive, and a Thinker, at first sight one is inclined
to type Annihilus as an ENTJ. But Annihilus, unlike the standard Lee Kirby NTJ,
does not want to rule the world; he only wants to perpetuate his strange
existence. I type him as an ENTP, because the dominant function of the ENTP –
Ne, Extraverted Intuition – concerns itself with possibilities, opportunities,
and generally makes its wielder inventive, zany, unpredictable. We only have to
look at all the manifold weapons and minions Annihilus against the Fantastic
Four – his Celestial Borers and his Flying Gun Ship, for example – and as soon
as one possibility (for defeating the Four) is exhausted, he leaps onto the
other.
1969
Torgo
– ISTJ
Torgo, a robot from
the robot planet Mekka, is kidnapped by Skrull slavers and taken to the world
of Kral and is forced to fight as a gladiator alongside hundreds of other abductees
taken from various worlds. The Kralians hold Mekka hostage, and threaten to
blow it up unless Torgo fights. In an unusual twist, the entire Kralian planet
is modelled on America in the 1930s, and the Kralians look, talk and behave
like gangsters from that period (maybe this twist is not so unusual – Kirby and
Lee borrowed the idea of a ‘1930s gangster planet’ from an episode of Star Trek
which was screen around the same time). After the Thing is abducted to Kral,
and made to fight Torgo in an arena, the Fantastic Four fly in a spaceship to
Kral to rescue him.
A Thinker, Sensor
and Introvert, Torgo is an ISTJ, and possesses the same sense of duty as the
typical ISTJ hero (and he is a hero, unlike other ISTJs in the series – the
Sentry, Ronan the Accuser and Tomazooma).
1970
Agatha
Harkness – INTJ
Agatha Harkness is
hired by the Fantastic Four to look after Sue Storm’s new baby, Franklin.
Harkness lives in a dark, spooky mansion atop Whisper Hill. During the Fantastic
Four’s visit, the Frightful Four take the opportunity to attack, but Harkness –
along with her familiar, a cat called Ebony – defeats them with her sorcery (one
of her powers (which she shares with Psycho Man) is to cause frightening
hallucinations). Harkness then goes on to become a series regular.
Without a doubt, Harkness
should be typed as an INTJ. As noted in my profile on the Black Panther, one of
the peculiar traits of the INTJ hero is that he (or she) likes to make their base
of operations in a dark, enclosed area filled with strange objects: think of
Batman and his Batcave, Walter White and his laboratory, Nick Burkhardt (from
the TV show Grimm) and his van, Doctor Strange and his mansion… Harkness’ strange,
Gothic and cluttered Whisper Hill mansion is in keeping with the haunts of
these INTJs.
Monocle
– INTJ
An
assassin and master of disguise, the Monocle aims at disrupting a United
Nations peace conference – he wants to bring about a nuclear war, after which
he (and the ‘masters’ he serves) will emerge and rule the Earth. (Monocle says:
‘I will be a king!’). Not a Sensor, he is an Intuitive, and relies upon
technologically-advanced weapons as opposed to physical strength and skill. He
is also clearly a Thinker, and an Extraverted Thinker (he shows ambitions of
world rule). Because he does not announce himself, and prefers to live in
shadows (metaphorically speaking), I type him as an Introvert. He is another
stock NTJ Kirby-Lee villain. Like many an Ni-dominant (the Black Panther, for
example), he makes use of forward planning: Introverted Intuition predicts the
future and all possible outcomes.
Monster
from the Lost Lagoon – ISFP
An
aquatic creature who is responsible for sinking many ships in an area called
the Lost Lagoon, he is hunted by the Fantastic Four at the request of the US
navy. He lives in a spaceship inside a cavern, and can assume human form after imbibing
a special potion. His human self is a taciturn loner who works with dolphins
and other ocean life in a nearby aquarium. After a fight with the Fantastic
Four, we learn that the Monster is misunderstood and merely wants to protect
his family…
An
Introvert and a Feeler, the Monster is also a Sensor – he is a brawler, a
fierce hand to hand combatant. Should he be typed as an Introverted or Extraverted
Sensor? The latter, as Se as a dominant or secondary function can make them
aggressive, or feisty at least. I type the Monster as an ISFP.
Maggia
- various
The
last set of new characters by Lee and Kirby before the latter’s departure from
Marvel, the Maggia in this story belong to the Hammerhead family. The leader,
the Top Man, devises an ingenious scheme to take over the Baxter Building and
all its contents (including the pogo plane and other scientific marvels)
legally: he buys it off the owner and hands the Fantastic Four an eviction
notice.
I
type the Big Man as a Te dominant. His secondary function is Ni, as he shows
the visionary quality of many ENTJ characters. His underling, Big Rock, a
placid and quiet person, demonstrates a new type of body armour used by the
Maggia by having bullets fired at his chest: he doesn’t flinch. Introverted
Sensing dominant types tend to be passive and enduring. Because of his lack of
rationality and instrumentalism (see my profile on Galactus), I type him as a
Feeler, not a Thinker. His quietness makes him an introvert, so the verdict is:
ISFJ. As for Gimlet, he definitely is a cold, calculating type – a Thinker –
and is also an opportunity who pursues an opening to usurp the big man. This to
me says Extraverted Intuition. He should typed as an ENTP.
Mark Hootsen, signing
off
