Comic Book Lessons in Analytics — Mr Mxyzptlk
What if you understood reality completely… but disagreed?
Let’s have some fun.
Most of Superman’s adversaries fall into two categories: physical threats and more insidious, intelligent individuals who see Superman as a hindrance to their plans (or ego). They run the gamut from Doomsday to Lex Luthor.
There is a third category, however, and it is reserved for a single inhabitant: Mr Mxyzptlk (mik-SEZ-pit-lek), the imp from the fifth dimension. Well, we see him as an imp. Considering his ability to alter reality, it’s hard to say what his true form would be, if he even has one (as we understand it).
Mr Mxyzptlk is from the fifth dimension. He knows more than we can effectively quantify. Mxy even knows that he is a fictional character, not that it matters. I mean, Deadpool knows that much.
Purpose
Mr Mxyzptlk is usually grouped among Superman’s adversaries, but that’s not quite right. He does qualify as an antagonist because he tends to get in Superman’s way. A lot. With few exceptions, however, he doesn’t act out of malice.
Mxy loves Superman. He views their constant interactions as a game, and Superman is one of the few beings that has presented a challenge or even held his interest for any amount of time. Truth be told, he’s a bit obsessed.
More than once, he has seriously endangered both Superman’s life and the Earth itself. When Superman has been in direct mortal danger, however, Mxyzptlk has stood firmly in the face of Darkseid himself to defend him.
Mxyzptlk considers himself to be Superman’s biggest fan, as well as one of Superman’s best friends. So, he was surprised and hurt when he was once kidnapped and imprisoned for months, and Superman did not rescue him.
Meeting Mxy
Mxyzptlk has never possessed a clearly delineated set of powers. He can do anything, except when he can’t. Even he seems frustrated by the fluid nature of his existence, but he’s not sure whether to blame the cosmos or the writers.
Mxyzptlk is also identified as a singular character. He is always the same guy. Crisis after crisis. Reboot after reboot. Television. Animation. Games. Toys. Always the same Mxyzptlk. He even talks about it, on occasion.
This is a scene from the recent past, where Mxyzptlk is trying to explain to Jonathan Kent (Lois and Clark’s son) why he was upset with Superman.
Jon, being curious, doesn’t get the “TV show” reference, so Mxy gives him a brief explanation. It makes sense, in a way. We’ve always been told that Mxyzptlk is from a higher dimension and can see things that others cannot.
It also explains his skewed (from our perspective) concept of death.
True, it is odd that Mxy could be imprisoned, . It was a strange part of the DC Rebirth arc involving Superman’s father holding Mxyzptlk captive along with no less than two Tim Drakes (present and future).
Oh. By “Superman’s father”, I mean Jor El, having been saved from Krypton. Jonathan Kent (the elder) does not deal in this nonsense.
Anyway, back on track. In our dimension, Mxyzptlk is very childlike. He is impatient, petulant, and selfish. Dangerous qualities for a being that can rewrite the rules of reality, and has actually done so more than once.
Understanding Mxy
Mxyzptlk is one of only two such beings to visit the third dimension (his term, not mine) very often. He comes to play his games with Superman. But he also comes to watch over Superman, to make sure nothing happens to his friend.
Superman is often impatient with Mxyzptlk, but he doesn’t consider him evil.
This was the mid-point of arc that began with the arrival of Clark Kent in Metropolis (Mxy in disguise) to interview Superman and ended with Mxyzptlk “repairing” Superman’s reality after the New 52 undid much of his modern history (his marriage to Lois, the birth of Jon). Long story.
You have to parenthesize a lot when trying to explain a good Mxyzptlk story. It gets pretty weird.
Appreciating Mxy
Mr. Mxyzptlk is one of the most powerful characters in comics. He can hang with the cosmic entities in terms of power and capabilities.
He can’t hang with them for social reasons because, well, they really do not like him. They’re afraid of him, too, not that they’d admit it.
All that power. All that knowledge. It is tempting to say it’s in the wrong hands until you see what happens when the wrong hands actually get involved.
The “Emperor Joker” story involved the Joker tricking Mxyzptlk into giving him 99.99% percent of Mxy’s power. Joker then proceeded to remake reality in his own twisted image. Joker killed Lex Luthor. He fought Superman. As you can imagine, Batman had a really bad time of it.
It got weird. And, honestly, offensive.
Eventually, Superman managed to leverage the Joker’s main weaknesses: his ego and the Bat-shaped shadow on it. No matter how many times Joker tormented, killed, or erased Batman, the shadow in his mind was still there.
Saying Goodbye to Mxy
This is easier said than done. Most of the time, getting rid of Mxyzptlk simply requires one to trick him into saying or writing his own name backwards. There is no hidden power in the name. Mxy’s own species simply requires him to give his opponent a way to dismiss him. He doesn’t make it easy, though.
Before we say goodbye, how does any of this apply to analytics?
It’s more like a lesson in knowledge. Mxyzptlk has access to most or all of the knowledge in our universe (everything ‘below’ the fifth dimension). He rarely does anything useful with it.
Unless you count the Injustice story, in which Mxyzptlk took over the Spectre to prevent him from stopping Superman’s despotic reign. That was not nice.
Most of the time, however, Mxyzptlk does nothing of lasting consequence. Maybe he can’t. There are some odd fifth dimension rules governing his visits.
We can take a few pointers, though.
- Having all of the knowledge of existence (data, intelligence… just roll with it) accomplishes nothing if you don’t take meaningful steps to leverage it.
- The only thing worse than wasting knowledge is doing the wrong things with it. Joker had no idea what he could do with that ability, but he nearly upended the universe anyway.
- I could really make some points here about security, protecting one’s data, and keeping everything safe. These things are extremely important, to be sure. They just seem like a downer at this point.
Keep it in mind. Efficiency is good. Effectiveness is good. Ethics are good.
And, with that… Kltpzyxm. Later.
For more analytics lessons from bad guys who know too much…
