Mr. A
Born in 1967 of Steve Ditko's fascination with Objectivism, Mr. A is a 'superhero' without observable powers aside from his steel gloves and mask, similar to the first incarnations of The Question. Alan Moore disliked this character strongly and portrayed this type of character in a rather twisted way as Watchmen's Rorschach. In Street Fighter 3, a character named Q also appears to be based on him.
Philosophical elements aside, Mr. A marked Ditko's shift from working on contract for mainstream publishers like Marvel and D.C. to more creator-owned projects; Mr. A was first published in the Underground Comics series witzend and was later collected in self-published comics Ditko distributed himself.
Tropes used in Mr. A include:
- Author Tract: There are times when the action comes to a sudden stop in order for Mr. A to put on Wall of Text after Wall of Text regarding Black and White Morality.
- Badass Normal: As mentioned, he is absolutely a normal human, even without Training from Hell.
- Black and White Morality: The driving force behind the comic. Mr. A's entire outfit is portrayed as pure white because of this, and his "calling card" is half-black, half-white, and he constantly goes on filibusters about how there is no "gray area".
- Character Filibuster: Oh, bigtime.
- Secret Identity: One that's every bit as much a champion of objectivism, journalist Rex Graine.
- Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: How a journalist could get all of the gadgets and an iron mask without getting any funny looks?