Character Analysis: The Mask(Feat Grand)

 

Background

The origins of the mask are shrouded in mystery for the most part. While the movies state that it was created by the Norse night god of mischief Loki, this is clearly not the case in the original comics.

What we do know is that it appears to have been created by an African tribe and used in some sort of ritual. The purposes of this ritual are not made clear, but they involve the user of the mask being brutally decapitated before fitting it right back on. A bourgeoise character by the name of Mr. Razziky had caught wind of this mask and wanted it for some investments, and sent a few of his goons along with a guy named Mitch to steal it. That plan went off without a hitch, except for when Mitch tried to run off with the mask himself. The men planned to kill Mitch for the treachery and take the mask back to their boss, but Mitch managed to sneak the mask on before that and murdered the goons.

The mask eventually made its way to an antique store in Edge City, where it was purchased by Stanley Ipkiss as a gift for his girlfriend, Kathy. But upon putting on the mask, he was transformed into “Big Head”, a character with a thing for nice suits, Looney Tunes physics, and complete insanity. Ipkiss spent days tracking down those who had humiliated him for the pettiest of things so long ago and brutally attacking them, eventually being kicked out by Kathy due to his violent tendencies. While trying to steal the mask back from her, he wound up being shot and murdered himself when she donned the mask herself.

Since then, the mask and Big Head have hopped from wearer to wearer, from city to city. Throughout all Mask media, it appears to have been worn by at least 24 people, likely more. But no matter whose face it covers, some things never change: the cruel humor, the wacky abilities, the extreme violence, and the total insanity.

Equipment

The Mask

The Not Ordinary Mask is a rather freaky-looking green piece of face wear that grants some absolutely ridiculous powers to anyone who puts it on, which we’ll get to in a bit. In the movie, it is described as allowing the user to “do anything, be anything”. 

With those ridiculous powers, however, comes a ridiculous personality, and in some cases, borderline insanity, as the occasional wink of the camera will show. To quote one of its wearers, Ben, it's like the wearer is a car and the mask is the driver. With that statement, the mask also appears to have some semblance of sentience, as it has been shown to still act even when people aren’t wearing it. This has not amounted to anything extraordinary though.

Even the people who have the best luck in controlling themselves while wearing the mask succumb to this effect even a little. Unfortunately, the less the user has “swung into the madness”, the less powerful they will be when using it. While some people can survive massive amounts of damage if they're crazy enough, others will be knocked out by smaller amounts of damage.

The mask itself is very durable. According to Lieutenant Kellaway, it cannot be destroyed and has been shown to break saws and crowbars that try destroying it. It also seems to make the world look like what I imagine you’d see on an acid trip. Furthermore, it is ridiculously hard for the mask to be removed by anyone who isn’t wearing it.

Weapons

While there have been a few inconsistencies throughout the comics, they all agree that as part of his cartoon physics persona, The Mask can bust out just about any weapon at any given time. He has done so through a puff of smoke, his pockets, his sleeve, transmutation powers, heck sometimes it doesn't even know where this stuff comes from. A likely explanation for these inconsistencies is just how well the user’s are able to control the mask’s power.

Theoretically speaking, The Mask could potentially bust out just about any weapons he can imagine, and he’s made some stuff that clearly doesn’t exist before (see “crazy guns”). 

Long-Range Weapons

• An uzi

• A bazooka

• Grenades

• A handgun

• He’s clearly very good with these things too, given that he accurately shoots a cop in a cop car, while driving himself, using a car mirror to aim.

• A flamethrower

• A machine gun

• A mini uzi

• A tommy gun

• A harpoon gun

• An automatic crossbow rifle?

• Another machine gun

• Another handgun

• A... crazy gun. I don't know what else to call it

• A couple more crazy guns

• Some more guns (need names/types)

• Another handgun

• Rockets

• The classic slingshot

• Brass knuckles

Close-Quarters Weapons

• Large scissors

• A rolling pin

• A jackhammer

• A battle axe

• A swordfish

• Sledgehammer

• Another mallet

• Nunchucks, boxing gloves

• Chainsaw

• A machete

• A mace club

• A sabre

• A guitar battle axe

• Brass knuckles

Miscellaneous Tools

• A firehose

• ACME whoopee cushion

• Gasoline and a lighter

• A toilet

• Molasses and killer bees

• An anvil

• Stick of dynamite

• Bomb that explodes when hit by hammer

• Rocket-powered boat

• A giant anchor

• A fishing rod

• 4000 oz. Big Head hooch

• Parachute

• Cigarette bombs

• A baseball and bat

• Cartoony bombs that should kill people but don't

• A guitar

• Propeller hat

• Charnel No. 9 bomb

• The classic ACME giant magnet

• Bottomless cup of coffee

• A ventriloquist puppet

• A motorbike with a sidecar, which he then turns into a monster truck

• A lot of random junk

• Bulletproof vest

• A whip, sac of potatoes, and sac of baseballs

• A barrel of drunk monkeys with power tools

• Crawfish, maggots, cookbooks

• A telescope

• Hell’s Cabbies Grid Lock Buster bomb

Abilities

Regeneration

Of all the abilities the Mask has shown in the comics, the most ridiculous of them may be his crazy healing factor. He’s manage to make it back from stuff that would absolutely murder any normal human being, and still functioned just fine in spite of it. Even when his head is completely detached from his body, he can pilot that thing just fine. Along with that, he also has a very high pain tolerance.

• Gets run over by a car and is fine.

• Gets a hole blasted through him and is fine.

• Gets unloaded on by a dozen cops.

• Putting on mask instantly heals the user’s broken arm

• The arm is still broken upon the removal of the mask, so he either powered through the pain very easily, or the mask will only regenerate things while it is worn, and upon removal they return to their original state

• Wearer tanks hitting themselves in the head with a hammer super hard, doesn’t feel a thing

• Shoots self right through the hand and is totally fine

• Hands heals up real well too

• Gets shot up real nice and is still standing

• Smashed down on concrete, shot right through the brain, thrown into a lamp post so hard it breaks, and is fine.

• Gets blasted through main body and is fine

• The Mask takes the stick of dynamite, is blown to a pool of blood by it, and regenerates fine in just a few hours

• This is probably the craziest thing The Mask has come back from, what with being a puddle and all.

• Brings that car to a roaring stop, flies out the front window, and is fine.

• The Mask claims he’s invulnerable. 

• That isn’t technically wrong, but could be an NLF and it depends on what definition he’s using. Based off the context of the panel, he likely meant it in the sense that he could not feel pain, not in the sense that he couldn’t take damage (the cuts along his head would say so).

• Blows up a bomb and gets a huge explosion out of it. The Mask survives it fully intact and isn’t fazed from being on fire.

• A mask wielder once got decapitated and the body could still walk around and reattach the head

• Wounds are totally healed upon removal once again

• Either doesn't have a heartbeat or can stop it and be fine.

• Removes head to perform Shakespeare

• Gets shot by an arrow through the chest and is fine

• Arrows specifically designed to drain The Mask of energy can work. Work to neutralize him, anyways. He's still alive and kicking with just a head, and can even still control the body. And they only neutralize him briefly, and then the body is right back up

• Turns his head into a bomb and survives it... somehow. 

• Is fine after getting leg cut off

• Continues to be fine with getting hit by a bunch of cars and losing limbs

• Can attach others' body parts to himself, even when they’re robots

• Gets electrocuted by phone lines, launched high into the air, bounces off a truck into the window roof of a building leaving a crater and is fine

• Gets kicked in the balls really hard. Like... really hard.

• Can peel everything off his skeleton and still function

• Gets set on fire

• Even turning a voodoo doll of The Mask to ash doesn't kill him

• Take shots without issue

• Plugs holes in body

• Regenerates from foot at a good rate

• Eats Lobo, who then bursts out through the stomach

• Lobo set two mini nukes in the stomach. They blow up, destroying a lot of the building, and leaving the two of them totally blown to pieces.

• Instantly regrows a new body

• The three heads get decapitated

• Uses his eyes as a weapon

Shapeshifting

• Stretchy neck. Appears to be in pain, but this is the weakest Mask user. Others have gone through worst stretches and been fine.

• Gets head pushed into body

• Can turn his neck into a spring

• Can have two faces on the one head.

• Opera singer bod.

• Devoids himself of color. Stretches his tongue and makes it into a mouth.

• Can make himself buff

• Snake hair and snake tongue.

• Fits a little girl in his mouth

• Inflates his leg or something like that

• Can make his body into that of a woman's... god that's disturbing.

• Inflates his body like a balloon and goes flying when he's "popped"

• Gets stabbed

• Gets flattened

• Gets stretched

• Can turn head 180 degrees and enlarge so much that it eats an entire monster

• Bouncy head, like it’s made of rubber

• Extends spine and neck out of body, around Lobo

• Rubberness continues as his leg and neck extends a very far distance due to a taxi pulling him along while he’s tied to a pole

• Transforms head into a chicken head

• Turns into a giant ape

• Stretchy face

• Stretchy body, as he infiltrates a building through sewage pipes

• Mouth stretches open. Swallows bombs and is just a little dizzy when they blow up.

• Grows bunny ears, fits inside toilet 

• Grows the heads of the three stooges

• The Mask claims that the one wearing the mask can never die. Could be considered an NLF, but Lobo sure isn’t able to take it down, and I mean, it’s Lobo.

Flight

Not his most commonly used ability, but The Mask has shown to be capable of flight before through a few different methods. He can fly just as a natural ability, use guns to fly (or I guess rocket himself into the air), or inflate himself like a balloon.

Teleportation (?)

This ability isn’t shown off very well so I’m hesitant to say “Yes, The Mask can teleport” but there have certainly been a few instances where he would be in one place at a given time and then just be gone from there. And I don’t know if this is necessarily teleportation, but he once jumped into a puddle and popped out of his bathroom toilet.

Master of Disguise

The Mask has a lot of love for costumes. As the weapons display likely helped to show, if he plans on murdering you, he plans on looking the part too. But more than that, The Mask is an expert at imitation, as he has shown several times that he can somehow put skin over his head to make him look like a person, sound like a normal person, and rip it off whenever he wants to make his big reveal.

Transmutation

A classic scene from both the movie and the comics shows The Mask turning a balloon animal into a tommy gun. He has also turned a guitar into an axe, turned a scope into a kaleidoscope, and a motorbike into a monster truck. He has never shown to be able to use this ability on a living creature however.

Summoning

The Mask also seems to have the ability to just call up a load of animals to help him out. Be it as his regiment, a single soldier, for a Halloween party, or a box full of drunk monkeys with power tools. 

Physics Manipulation

Another ability that isn’t shown off very often, but likely as a part of his toonforce-y nature, The Mask has some minor physics manipulation which he has used to completely halt a fall before he hit the ground. He has also created a vortex in the floor that only sucks up his stolen goods, and in the movie, he paints a toilet handle on a tree, pushes it down, and the nearby body of water is flushed.

Miscellaneous Abilities

• Extends head past borders of the panel

• Has shot people up so good the blood extended outside the panels

• Does a great Sinatra impression

• Summons fire

• Blows the hilts of the blades open and shoots mini rockets from them.

• Uses a speaker to scream very loud

• Does Shakespeare

• He knows some ventriloquism

• Some kind of tentacle powers?

• Super sneeze launches a bunch of snot. That's incredibly disgusting.

• Throws up. A lot. Also super disgusting.

• Sailor Moon outfit.

• Food fight with a whole lot of food

• Chun-Li outfit?

• Immune to poisons

• Has freezing snot

• Somehow slips inside a giant robot

• Turns his head into a bomb and survives it... somehow.

• "Telescopic" hearing? So he can hear things from very far away

• Can drink gasoline and eat a lighter to spew fire

• Burps so loud he shatters a ton of glass

• Pirouette of doom

• Freezes himself to prevent heating up

• Batman costume

• He has a little Mask inside of him

• Tornado with Lobo wielding a battle axe

• Grabs Lobo’s speech bubbles and makes him literally eat his words

• Masked Lobo can read minds… by cutting open a person’s head and reading what’s in there. Not really applicable to a fight.

Feats

Power

• Hits someone with a bat so hard, the bat breaks

• Bazooka blows up a floor of the apartment building

• Smashes hood of car over a guy so good it closes

• Spins someone really fast by their hair, cuts their hair, and they fly up through a second-story window

• Breaks a car window

• Cuts a car hood in half in one swing, then cuts open the car roof

• Hits a baseball so hard it catches on fire

• Pulls out a mace and hits himself with enough force to knock out a few teeth

• Busts a car window with its face, has a parachute

• Pushes over a building

• Picks up a car and flies again

• Cuts off a part of a dock and makes a boat out of it

• Slams spiky hammer mace thing down so hard that it breaks

• Collision with Lobo's bomb creates a huge explosion in the atmosphere.

• Kicks Lobo's head a city block away

Speed

• Dodges shotgun fire from pretty close range

• Drives a car so fast it leaves a fire trail and the skin pushes back a lot on the other passengers’ faces

• Races out of the room fast enough to kick up a fiery trail behind him. He does so on a tiny car.

• Changes costumes and reacts to bullet fire from very close range

• Super fast eater

• Races around the world

Durability

It’s kind of hard to really pin down a durability for The Mask due to the healing factor allowing him to survive stuff that would obviously kill him if he didn’t have it. So there’s going to be a bit of overlap here with feats under the Regeneration section, but I’ll try to keep it minimal.

• Wearer tanks hitting themselves in the head with a hammer super hard, doesn’t feel a thing

• Smashed down on concrete and thrown through a streetlight so hard he breaks it.

• Actually tanks a bunch of gunfire without taking any damage this time

• Blows up his own bomb and survives it fully intact

• Electrocutes himself and summons fire and is fine

• Stabbed by swords in the back. Cries out, but seems to be fine.

• Busts out of a window, lands on a car and is fine

• Completely intact after a large explosion

• Survives this explosion just fine.

• Crushed by a 50 foot robot

• Continues to be fine with getting hit by a bunch of cars and losing limbs

• Gets electrocuted by phone lines, launched high into the air, bounces off a truck into the window roof of a building leaving a crater and is fine

• Gets kicked in the balls really hard. Like... really hard.

• Gets head smashed into a brick wall, though he was wearing a helmet. 

• Survives this big explosion

• Collision with Lobo's bomb creates a huge explosion in the atmosphere.

• Given how high above Earth they are, he also likely had to survive atmospheric re-entry.

Weaknesses

The Mask doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses. He may always be going for gags and such, but he’s never gotten so wrapped up in his humour or arrogance of his own abilities that someone has managed to get the drop on him.

The number one thing I can really pin down is that while the mask itself doesn’t feel guilt, the person under it can. If The Mask can be convinced to remove it, they’ll lose their powers and the vulnerable host underneath will be back to their plain ol’ self. But this weakness has only been exploited by people who have worn the mask before and talked the current user of it from a place of relation, by loved ones of the user, or in Lobo’s case, by using a guilt bomb specifically designed to make people feel bad about their actions.