Difference between revisions of "1012: Wrong Superhero"

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Revision as of 00:21, 23 August 2015

Wrong Superhero
Hi! Someone call for me? I'm a superhero who specializes in the study of God's creation of Man in the Book of Genesi-- HOLY SHIT A GIANT BUG!
Title text: Hi! Someone call for me? I'm a superhero who specializes in the study of God's creation of Man in the Book of Genesi-- HOLY SHIT A GIANT BUG!

Explanation

The super hero from just two comics ago, Etymology-Man, returns. And just like that comic, Etymology-Man is explaining the origination of words instead of actually helping. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.

Who they want is Entomology-Man because they are fighting a giant praying mantis and an army of smaller praying mantises (which are nonetheless much larger than a typical praying mantis - compared to the size of the people in this comic the smaller mantises appear to be 8-12 inches long). Entomology is the study of insects.

In the title text, we find out they accidentally call a superhero focused on the story of Adam and Eve in the Biblical book of Genesis. This is probably Etiology-Man (the study of causation and attribution), but might be Ontology-Man (the study of being and existence) or (as a pun) Adam-ology-Man.

Transcript

[A giant praying mantis attacks a team of scientists, along with its legion of smaller-but-still-unusually-large mantises. Two of the scientists fight back, with a gun and a baseball bat respectively, while a third is in the mantis' clutches, held aloft by his foot, his goggles falling off his face. Bullets whiz by the giant mantis' head, and a fourth scientist hides behind a desk, on which rests a microscope and an Erlenmeyer flask. A man in a cape approaches the hiding scientist.]
Etymology-man: Ah, no—you wanted ENTOmology-Man, spelled with an "N". See, it's from the Greek entomon, meaning "insect", which is itself the neuter form of entomos, meaning "segmented" or...
BLAM BLAM BLAM


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Discussion

Maybe they wanted to know what the plural form of mantis is, if more were to show up? Looks like a job for etymology man. Davidy22(talk) 14:30, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

So what is the title text referring too? 108.162.221.98 14:54, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

The title text is referring to Genesis 2:20: "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field." In Biblical terms, this verse explains how all names of creatures (including praying mantises) came to be. Apparently Etymology-Man has studied this. -- Npsych (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

adam-ology make more sense than the other guesses173.245.56.65 07:48, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Didn't Portal 2 make a reference to giant mantises in one of cave johnson's prerecorded messages? maybe the comic is a bit of a reference to that. --Flamewolf (talk) 19:50, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Maybe the title text is a pun on arthropodology[1] and (theological) anthropology[2]? 162.158.69.184 18:20, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

I suggest they asked for another hero fighting the mantis, but who came was "man-theology-man" (not manteology-man).


Perhaps the alt-text references Ethnology-Man? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnology

Ok, I'm making etymology man a minor character. Beanie (talk) 11:12, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

They should have called Eschatology Man, student of the book of Revelation. Eschatology is the study of stories about the end of the world. Nitpicking (talk) 01:57, 23 September 2021 (UTC)