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Impossible Man
He's green, he shape-shifts, he flies--but most of all, he does the impossible! See the Impossible Man wreak havoc across the Marvel Universe, from Latveria to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to the Savage Land! And wait till you meet the Impossible Woman and their kids! Guest-starring everyone from the Fantastic Four to Spider-Woman to Thor to the X-Men!
360 pages, Paperback
First published July 6, 2011
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Stan Lee
7,565 books2,336 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 13, 2018
Impossible Man!!!
Impossible Man???
Comic book publishers like to go the extra inch or two and sometimes publish collections that are based around a character that’s got some history – Doombots through the Ages, The Best of the Sinister Seven, The Uncle Ben Collection, The Ailments of Aunt May…
This one’s all about the Impossible Man – Marvel’s answer to DC’s Mr. Mxyzptlk - an all-powerful alien, who ends up over the course of decades of continuity, being transformed into a shape-shifting punster-y punch line.
Way back in Fantastic Four #11, we meet the Impossible Man, an intergalactic tourist from the planet Poppup – with abilities (he can pretty much transform into anything) that ordinarily would make him a formidable opponent – but he’s played for laughs.
Marvel, true believers, as the Fantastic Four try to figure out how to get rid of this intergalactic pain in the ass.
The Thing just wants to clobber the Impossible Man and the reader by the end of this volume will wish he repeatedly punched him into a pile of intergalactic goo. But, nay, it was not to be.
The story is decent, but the resolution is ass.
When Stan Lee’s contribution to a Marvel anthology that spans decades is the best (and first) thing in this volume, well, it makes for an oft leaden read.
Galactus ate the planet Popup, so Impy gets to hang with his homies, the Fantastic Four, for, it seems like, an eternity.
Adding to the misery, is the fact that Impy wants his own comic book…
And this gives the Marvel staff the opportunity to write themselves into the story. And not for the last time in this volume.
At some point poor lil’ Impy gets lonely, so in a gag-inducing sequence on a biblical scale, he creates a woman for himself, from himself.
Along the way, Impy bugs the sh*t out of, then shamus, Spider-Woman…
…plays a massive scavenger hunt game with the X-Men…
(I’m not going there…just don’t even want to think about it.)
…and with Warlock and the New Mutants does the Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better schtick.
Somewhere along the line he and Mrs. Impossible live the Impossible Dream and have thousands of little Popems. You’d assume that if Impossible Man has a wife and thousands of kids that the humor quotient would also rise exponentially.
I’m here to tell you the sad fact that, no, it ain’t so.
They and the little pop-up-videos go on vacation on Earth and get to annoy pretty much everyone in the Marvel universe.
After blowing some hoods to bits with a grenade, Frank Castle definitely had that smooch coming.
There’s some grins here, but by this point in the volume I was impossibly fatigued.
The volume rounds out with the Cable and X-Force 95 Annual – right dead center in the creative nadir of Marvel comics.
Impy asks Cable to train three of his slacker kids (this was actually kind of funny) and what passed for hilarity in the ‘90’s ensues.
So, Jeff, dude, would I like this book?
It’s not Impossible, Man, but unless you’ve got a masochistic streak, I’d say nope.
Bottom Line:
Two and a half stars rounded down.
Impossible Man???
Comic book publishers like to go the extra inch or two and sometimes publish collections that are based around a character that’s got some history – Doombots through the Ages, The Best of the Sinister Seven, The Uncle Ben Collection, The Ailments of Aunt May…
This one’s all about the Impossible Man – Marvel’s answer to DC’s Mr. Mxyzptlk - an all-powerful alien, who ends up over the course of decades of continuity, being transformed into a shape-shifting punster-y punch line.
Way back in Fantastic Four #11, we meet the Impossible Man, an intergalactic tourist from the planet Poppup – with abilities (he can pretty much transform into anything) that ordinarily would make him a formidable opponent – but he’s played for laughs.
Marvel, true believers, as the Fantastic Four try to figure out how to get rid of this intergalactic pain in the ass.
The Thing just wants to clobber the Impossible Man and the reader by the end of this volume will wish he repeatedly punched him into a pile of intergalactic goo. But, nay, it was not to be.
The story is decent, but the resolution is ass.
When Stan Lee’s contribution to a Marvel anthology that spans decades is the best (and first) thing in this volume, well, it makes for an oft leaden read.
Galactus ate the planet Popup, so Impy gets to hang with his homies, the Fantastic Four, for, it seems like, an eternity.
Adding to the misery, is the fact that Impy wants his own comic book…
And this gives the Marvel staff the opportunity to write themselves into the story. And not for the last time in this volume.
At some point poor lil’ Impy gets lonely, so in a gag-inducing sequence on a biblical scale, he creates a woman for himself, from himself.
Along the way, Impy bugs the sh*t out of, then shamus, Spider-Woman…
…plays a massive scavenger hunt game with the X-Men…
(I’m not going there…just don’t even want to think about it.)
…and with Warlock and the New Mutants does the Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better schtick.
Somewhere along the line he and Mrs. Impossible live the Impossible Dream and have thousands of little Popems. You’d assume that if Impossible Man has a wife and thousands of kids that the humor quotient would also rise exponentially.
I’m here to tell you the sad fact that, no, it ain’t so.
They and the little pop-up-videos go on vacation on Earth and get to annoy pretty much everyone in the Marvel universe.
After blowing some hoods to bits with a grenade, Frank Castle definitely had that smooch coming.
There’s some grins here, but by this point in the volume I was impossibly fatigued.
The volume rounds out with the Cable and X-Force 95 Annual – right dead center in the creative nadir of Marvel comics.
Impy asks Cable to train three of his slacker kids (this was actually kind of funny) and what passed for hilarity in the ‘90’s ensues.
So, Jeff, dude, would I like this book?
It’s not Impossible, Man, but unless you’ve got a masochistic streak, I’d say nope.
Bottom Line:
Two and a half stars rounded down.
March 20, 2022
A compilation of various appearances of the Fantastic Four's friendly foe, the Impossible Man. His first appearance is fun enough... but while his other earlier appearances are fairly entertaining, they don't quite seem to hit the right note. Fortunately, the character finally seems to click with the very fun New Mutants Annual, midway through the collection, which is followed by an entertaining meeting with the Silver Surfer and the memorable 1990s Impossible Man summer specials. The volume concludes with an amusing enough crossover with X-Force. A nice collection if you're looking for something on the lighter side of Marvel. (B+)
April 2, 2018
Pretty disappointing. The “jokes” are all just Impossible Man turning into something that references something else, like an early family guy episode only lamer (if that’s possible) and the storylines repeat each time. Impy comes to earth, annoys a hero, then leaves. The only issue worth looking at was the X-Force annual because that at least tried something different (Impy’s kids are gen x slackers instead of lunatics). Overall this is a waste of time and paper.
February 23, 2014
Nostalgia colored glasses made these better in my memory than they actually are. Total nonsense. Not very funny. A New Mutants annual in this collection is the only thing that holds up.
November 8, 2022
Reprints Fantastic Four (1) #11, 176, Marvel Two-In-One (1) #60, #86, Spider-Woman (1) #45, Uncanny X-Men (1) Annual #7, New Mutants (1) Annual #3, Silver Surfer (3) #33, Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular #1-2, Marvel Comics Presents (1) #91, and X-Force & Cable Annual ’95 (February 1963-December 1995). Coming from the planet Popup, the Impossible Man is always looking for a good time. Hanging out with the Fantastic Four and playing games with the X-Men, the Impossible Man might be a bit of a problem, but Earth has heroes…and the Impossible Man isn’t one of them.
Written by Craig Anderson, Chris Claremont, Peter David, Tom DeFalco, Michael Gallagher, Mark Gruenwald, Marie Javins, Stan Lee, Jeph Loeb, Ralph Macchio, Howard Mackie, Ron Marz, Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Jim Valentino, Renee Witterstaetter, and Gregory Wright, Impossible Man is a Marvel Comics superhero comic book collection. The collection features art by Bret Blevins, James Brock, Greg Capullo, Barry Crain, Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer, James Fry, Michael Golden, Butch Guice, Sam Keith, Jack Kirby, Steve Leialoha, Rick Leonardi, Ron Lim, Aaron Lopresti, Dave Manak, Luke McDonnell, Tom Morgan, George Perez, John Romita Jr., Sam de la Rosa, Matt Ryan, Rurik Tyler, Jim Valentino, Keith Wilson, Ron Wilson, and Phil Winslade and issues in the collection have been reprinted multiple times as parts of different collections.
The Impossible Man was one of my early favorite non-mainstream characters. He was a weird character who wasn’t a hero or a villain and he was goofy. He was always playing an entirely different game from the other comic book characters who were trying to fight threats to the Earth and the universe. He wasn’t so self-referential like Howard the Duck, but he was pretty self-aware.
The collection is an odd one. It starts with the first appearance of the Impossible Man in Fantastic Four #11 (February 1963), but the character disappeared for over a decade. When the Impossible Man would resurface, there would sometimes be years between Impossible Man appearances and as a result, the character never really developed. The Impossible Man added an Impossible Woman after an encounter with the Thing, but even then, the character was rarely tapped…it leads to a rocky read.
The character only really started to develop through more appearances. The crossover with the X-Men lead to the crossover with the New Mutants and his association with the Fantastic Four led to other encounters. The book includes the character’s two solo comic book issues which primarily event to an anthology book with a somewhat arcing theme through both of them…they are ok, but it still feels like the character needs more structure.
The Impossible Man is a character that has the potential for a lot of fun by artists. He’s tall and lanky, but it is the pop culture stuff which gives him a bit more moments of self-aware knowledge. He can turn into Magnum, P.I. or transform into a number of Spider-Man’s villains (all while staying green and purple). Some of the artists have a lot of fun with it.
The collection isn’t the best collection simply because you never get to see the character really develop over the years. That is part of the point of the character who doesn’t evolve much because he has a childish view of the world…but it doesn’t necessarily make for great reading. I wish that there was someone with a passion for the Impossible Man who could take the character and write the character for a while to give him some death…until then, we’ll have to see what “pops” up next.
Written by Craig Anderson, Chris Claremont, Peter David, Tom DeFalco, Michael Gallagher, Mark Gruenwald, Marie Javins, Stan Lee, Jeph Loeb, Ralph Macchio, Howard Mackie, Ron Marz, Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Jim Valentino, Renee Witterstaetter, and Gregory Wright, Impossible Man is a Marvel Comics superhero comic book collection. The collection features art by Bret Blevins, James Brock, Greg Capullo, Barry Crain, Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer, James Fry, Michael Golden, Butch Guice, Sam Keith, Jack Kirby, Steve Leialoha, Rick Leonardi, Ron Lim, Aaron Lopresti, Dave Manak, Luke McDonnell, Tom Morgan, George Perez, John Romita Jr., Sam de la Rosa, Matt Ryan, Rurik Tyler, Jim Valentino, Keith Wilson, Ron Wilson, and Phil Winslade and issues in the collection have been reprinted multiple times as parts of different collections.
The Impossible Man was one of my early favorite non-mainstream characters. He was a weird character who wasn’t a hero or a villain and he was goofy. He was always playing an entirely different game from the other comic book characters who were trying to fight threats to the Earth and the universe. He wasn’t so self-referential like Howard the Duck, but he was pretty self-aware.
The collection is an odd one. It starts with the first appearance of the Impossible Man in Fantastic Four #11 (February 1963), but the character disappeared for over a decade. When the Impossible Man would resurface, there would sometimes be years between Impossible Man appearances and as a result, the character never really developed. The Impossible Man added an Impossible Woman after an encounter with the Thing, but even then, the character was rarely tapped…it leads to a rocky read.
The character only really started to develop through more appearances. The crossover with the X-Men lead to the crossover with the New Mutants and his association with the Fantastic Four led to other encounters. The book includes the character’s two solo comic book issues which primarily event to an anthology book with a somewhat arcing theme through both of them…they are ok, but it still feels like the character needs more structure.
The Impossible Man is a character that has the potential for a lot of fun by artists. He’s tall and lanky, but it is the pop culture stuff which gives him a bit more moments of self-aware knowledge. He can turn into Magnum, P.I. or transform into a number of Spider-Man’s villains (all while staying green and purple). Some of the artists have a lot of fun with it.
The collection isn’t the best collection simply because you never get to see the character really develop over the years. That is part of the point of the character who doesn’t evolve much because he has a childish view of the world…but it doesn’t necessarily make for great reading. I wish that there was someone with a passion for the Impossible Man who could take the character and write the character for a while to give him some death…until then, we’ll have to see what “pops” up next.
March 9, 2019
Fun if a little disconnected, he’s Marvel’s answer to Mr. Mxyzptlk. The real fun is seeing how the Impossible Man transforms.
April 25, 2024
This starts off with great art (Kirby, Golden, Davis),then it goes way downhill.
July 12, 2015
Hilarious read! Don't understand the cover though. Impossible Man is a nuisance, but the cover makes him look villainous.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews