Know Thy History: Diabolik

Sometime last week, I was at a spy-themed party. Most everyone decided to go the sunglasses with a shirt and tie. I decide to go as something flashier. After all, when you own a black balaclava, you got a ton of options. So I dressed in all black and had only my eyes showing.

So someone went, “Hey, are you going as a ninja?” I said, “I was trying to get a Diabolik thing going.”

I came to the realization I had no idea what I was saying. I had never, ever picked up a Diabolik comic.  I would be rather remarkable if I did, since very few were ever translated into English and hardly any of those even made it stateside.  (A search on Amazon will yield you the movie, a TV series, some comic called Satanik and an anime called “Diabolik Lovers.”)

The basic idea, though, is easy to pick up through osmosis.  If you love the series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (and I do — in fact, the origin of my online handle comes from one of the episode), you’ll remember that the very final episode riffed on the movie adaptation called Danger: Diabolik.  X-Men readers remember a character created by Grant Morrison called Fantomex, a dude who totally dressed like Diabolik only he was clad head to toe in white.  And, of course, there’s the Beastie Boys video for “Body Movin'”, a direct parody that all people who write about Diabolik are legally obligated to post.