The Origin of the Wolveroach

Cerebus and the Countess drag the unconscious Wolveroach upstairs and Cerebus deduces that he isn't really the Countesses uncle. One puzzling thing was the Roach's incredible weight. He had been bulky ever since his Captain Cockroach days, but that was all muscle. This time he collapses the bed when they get him onto it.

Aside from Weisshaupt and Cerebus the Countess appears to have the longest association with the Roach. Weisshaupt brought him to her after spiriting him out of Beduin as a wanted felon. The Countess became quite fond of him, which is probably when she adopted him as her 'uncle'.

It was the Countess that Weisshaupt took the Roach from and moulded him into his 'hero of the realm' Captain Cockroach. When Weisshaupt got himself into trouble and went missing the Roach lost all focus and had no idea what to do with himself.

Astoria came to the Countess and said she needed somewhere to stay. She very quickly latched onto Uncle Artemis and seemed to befriend him, what she was doing was giving him someone else to follow, another cause to use his unique abilities to further.

In his Moon Roach guise he would occasionally visit the Countess and stand outside, on the second floor window ledges. The Countess was also aware of his regular personality changes and of Astoria's relationship with Cerebus.

Somehow he managed to escape the clutches of the church when Cerebus' government fell and let the Countess know that had survived by writing to her as Father Artemis Roach. He returned to his original protectoress not long after that. I found it interesting that she referred to him as Artemis all the time. I wonder where the name came from. I don't think it's his actual name and the readers had not been made aware of the businessman's name, the one that Cerebus had first met. Possibly it was a name the Countess made up for him. In any case the Countess' story about the Roach completely invalidates Astoria's Moon Roach origin story.

At this point Cerebus and the Countess are interrupted by the arrival of Weisshaupt. He claims to have entered through the door they left open when Artemis came in. I don't know if the Countess has any retainers, but she should sack them, because they appear to just let anyone wander into the place.

Weisshaupt is his usual supercilious, scheming self. There's a mention of a Sir Gerrik, which is not expanded upon, but promises an interesting story in the future with more than a whiff of scandal about it.

Weisshaupt is at it again, trying to put together his United Feldwar States concept, he offers Cerebus the Prime Ministership of Iest again, which Cerebus refuses, even though Weisshaupt has signed agreements with Lower Felda, New Sepra, Togith, Iest and Palnu. With Lord Julius on side Weisshaupt thinks he can't possibly lose. He doesn't seem to know the wily Palnan bureaucrat very well, even when Julius says he's on your side he probably really isn't.

Weisshaupt believes that the new incarnation he's given the Bug makes him the perfect tool. The Wolveroach combines the best elements of the previous versions. He has the crazed lone wolf aspect of the original Cockroach, he's the product of a scientific breakthrough like Captain Cockroach, although like Captain Cockroach, it's a bogus breakthrough. The character that the Wolveroach was based on; X-Men's Wolverine had an unbreakable adamantium skeleton that combined with his mutant healing factor made him near unkillable. I was wondering how they'd do that in Cerebus' world and the explanation also accounted for his increased weight. Weisshaupt had given him a costume with 200 pounds of moulded lead stitched into it. He also has the deadly assassin part of the Moon Roach in him as well. Weisshaupt has informants in the government who tell the Roach who to kill, they're known as X-Persons. Initially they were to be called the X-Men, but one of them pointed out that no Cirinist would ever work for an organisation that had the word 'men' in it. The fact that if Dave had done this he would have had to contend a massive lawsuit with Marvel is not mentioned. On that point Dave was forced to pull the Wolveroach because Marvel threatened legal action on the grounds that it was too close to their character of Wolverine. They never complained about Captain Cockroach (Captain America) or the Moon Roach (Moon Knight). Dave did eventually make his peace with Marvel, but he was sure ticked off at the time. I can't say I blame him. Captain America was virtually public domain and the Moon Knight was never more than a B list hero, but parody one of their A listers and watch the legal threats fly.

Weisshaupt is ordered out of the house by Cerebus and takes his leave. It isn't mentioned and maybe it was coincidental, but there was a definite resemblance between the Countess and Weisshaupt. It then dawns on the Countess that she accidentally left 'Uncle' Artemis in the same room as her 'fiance' and that can't be a good thing. I was still struck by the speech patterns on her fiance and how he sounded so much like the McGrews. Maybe he's Onlian.

Chasing Cootie

Having seen the Roach just kill the man who can get him off the hook, Cerebus gives chase. He follows the Roach to a well situated apartment not all that far from the Regency.

Inside, the Roach is being attended to by an attractive and elegant young lady. This woman relates how she and the Cootie first met. He appeared in her room one night in his costume, and bleeding. She nursed him back to health (the Roach has always possessed amazing recuperative powers, so it didn't take long) and then he woke up speaking in a completely different voice. Apparently he was two separate personalities, the dominant one was called Kevitch, and it was Kevitch that drove the hero personality of the Moon Roach to destructive and violent acts. To calm him down the woman built her hero another personality, this one was a quiet, gentle character she named Artemis....Artemis Strong. It was the Artemis personality who told her the story of how a simple gardener became the Moon Roach. The costume appeared to him one night and took him over, it felt, he said like having an origin. (Very funny use of words and one that makes any fanboy break out into uncontrollable laughter).

The lady begged Cerebus not to arrest the Cootie, she implored him to take the costume, without the costume he couldn't become the Moon Roach. Cerebus remained unmoved. She threatened to kill herself. Cerebus took the costume.

On his way back to The Regency Cerebus encountered the diplomatic representative of Eshnospur who had come to warn Cerebus the church's inquisitors were after him, and they would seek to blame him for Holland M Hadden's untimely demise. Cerebus thinks he's avoided further trouble with the church after speaking to the inquisitors, that is until a giant crescent moon falls on them!

Once again Cerebus chases the Moon Roach, and we start to see how truly nutty this version of the Roach is. The Kevitch character provides a running commentary in the Roach's head about his actions as he performs them. This time the Roach is too good for Cerebus, and the aardvark has to give up his pursuit.

The Elf is posing in the mirror wearing Cerebus' disks, when a wet and angry aardvark returned, While Cerebus is ranting and raving about the Roach, and how he's messed everything up by dropping a moon on Holland M Hadden, and that he intends to solve his problems by getting money....a lot of money, the Elf watches him dry off, and becomes very amused by the way the tuft of hair between his ears fluffs up. She calls him 'Fluffy', and then bursts into hysterical laughter, leaving Cerebus to muse that it must be some kind of inside joke for elves.

This chapter was the first appearance of the Roach's new incarnation, which was obviously a parody of Marvel's Moon Knight. I thought Moon Knight was an odd choice. Moon Knight was one of the first titles I started collecting, and I stuck with it until artist and writer Bill Sienkiewicz's penchant for making everything into a basic geometric shape drove me nuts, and I stopped buying it. Moon Knight was never what could be termed a A list hero. He was also one of the truly oddest heroes they ever came up with. He started life as an American mercenary called Marc Spector. He ran up against his own commander; a brutal mercenary who went by the name of the Bushman, when the commander wanted to loot an Egyptian archaeological dig after killing the archaeologist that they had been hired to protect. The Bushman defeated Spector, and left him to die in the near freezing temperatures of the desert night. Some locals carried the mercenary to their temple, where the god Khonshu offered him a second chance at life if he will become the god's avatar on earth. Spector took the cloak that covered the statue of Khonshu, avenged himself against the Bushman, and then decided to go back to America and become the Moon Knight. He invested cleverly and created the wealthy playboy image of Steve Grant, while still keeping in touch with the common man using his other personality; that of cabbie Jake Lockley. Although he seemed to be in control there were times that even Spector wasn't sure who he was supposed to be. Today he'd be diagnosed with multiple people personality disorder. Somehow that makes him an extremely fitting model for the Roach.

Occasionally I used to wonder if the enjoyment of Cerebus was assisted by having a relatively good working knowledge of mainstream comics at the time. It certainly helped me get some of the jokes. The Moon Roach was one such instance, he wasn't really a big name, so unless you had an interest in the character you may not have understood some of the nuances, and as someone who enjoyed Moon Knight, let me tell you Dave really nailed him. I actually think he drew him better than any of the Marvel artists, Sienkiewicz before his Cubist obsession, included. His costume, which was really black and white, worked perfectly for Cerebus.