CLONE RANGER

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-78423) human; advanced technology-user

Occupation: Unrevealed; mediocre would-be revolutionary and geneticist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Unidentified mediocre man

Enemies: Howard the Duck, above average smart people, politicians, and psychiatrists

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Mr. C Ranger

Base of Operations: Ohio

First Appearance: Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September 4th, 1978)

Powers/Abilities: The Clone Ranger used silver test tubes as a calling card and rode around on a stick horse he named Xerox.

The Clone Ranger was deceptively strong and able to carry off a grown man with one arm while handling the reigns of a stick pony with his other hand.

Genetic Accelerator: The Clone Ranger had access to a machine that could make clones of others. The cloning process took 30 minutes. It is unclear if or how the new cloned bodies retained the original's complete set of memories or if they may have had some slight differences making them distinguishable from each other.

Height: Unrevealed (5'11"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (180 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown

History:
(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September 1978) (fb) - BTS) - The man who came to be known as the Clone Ranger considered himself to be mediocre in life and felt ridiculed for being different and below average. He also felt his kind were often overlooked by those in power whom he believed possessed higher intelligence than him. He held the belief that all intelligent people were responsible for causing wars, for wanting too much for themselves such as more power and more land, and he felt that they were also responsible for inventing psychiatry to fester neuroses. Afterall, he in his opinion, mediocre people did not act this way as they simply wanted to live an easy-going lifestyle and lead a happy life without ever trying to hurt anyone.

(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 1978) (fb) - BTS) - Taking it upon himself to act and start a revolution against those he believed were responsible, he somehow acquired a machine called the Genetic Accelerator that could clone others and learned how to use it. He fashioned a costume based on his favorite childhood hero, the Lone Ranger and built his secret lair in a carnival on the outskirts of town. Now calling himself the Clone Ranger, he planned to use this machine to create others of his kind, others that were deemed mediocre that he hoped would band together and take over the world.

(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 1978) - BTS) - The Clone Ranger bought a supply of specially made silver test tubes from a local medical supply company and had them mailed to his address at the carnival.

(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 1978)) - The Clone Ranger witnessed a man fall from his third story window onto a pile of pillows and then speak to Howard the Duck and Beverly about how clumsy he was and how he had lost his job for laying down at work as a mattress tester. During their brief conversation, the man claimed himself to be mediocre, and the Clone Ranger took action. Yelling his battle cry, “Time for Mediocrity to rise!” he snatched the man under one arm, left a silver test tube as his calling card and rode off down the street on his faithful stick horse Xerox.

(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 1978)) - Bringing the mediocre man back to his lair, he explained to the man his plan to clone others like him and his goal to take over the world from the so-called brainy types by creating more mediocre people to replace them. Unknown to the Clone Ranger, however, Howard and Beverly tracked him down to the carnival in an attempt to rescue the kidnapped man. Bursting through a window, Howard tackled the Clone Ranger who stumbled into one of his cloning machines causing a rapidly growing fire. Howard and Beverly escaped the inferno with the kidnapped man, but they left the Clone Ranger trapped inside. The freed man, believing the Clone Ranger's insane plot was a worthwhile cause, ran back into the flames only to apparently perish alongside him.

(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September 30th, 1978)) - In a laboratory like the one that burnt down, a similar machine hummed to life, and the Clone Ranger was reborn!

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman and Alan Kupperberg.

    He was an insane man living the life of so-called mediocrity who believed his goal in life was replacing those in power (intelligent people) by creating a world where the mediocre and nerds of society were in charge. How did he acquire his high-tech genetic accelerator let alone make enough money to hire someone to fashion silver into test tubes ? Was he wealthy? Did he maybe work for another geneticist and stole his cloning machines? He was smart enough to have a backup plan and cloned himself, so he was not that mediocre.

    It is unrevealed whether the Clone Ranger had cloned anyone before his only appearance or if this was his first attempt using his genetic accelerator.

    The Clone Ranger was likely based on the TV series actor Clayton Moore who was first to portray the Lone Ranger on screen from 1949 to 1955. The     Lone Ranger was also a comic strip produced by King Features Syndicate (which also produced the Howard the Duck Strip) from September 1938 to December 1971.

    The hair and eye color as well as the height and weight are based on those of the actor Clayton Moore at the time of his TV and movie appearances.

    The unidentified man the Clone Ranger planned to clone looked like the strip's own writer Marv Wolfman. (See image below)

    This profile was completed 6/15/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by AvatarWarlord.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Muse has no known connections to:

mediocre man

    He claimed to have worked as a mattress tester but was fired for laying down on the job.

    Trying to grab a pigeon from his apartment window three stories from the ground, the “Mediocre man” fell out but was saved from physical harm due to an awaiting pile of pillows that cushioned his fall to street level.

    The man's fall was witnessed by Howard and Beverly who rushed over to see if he was alright, and the man said he was simply clumsy and fell out his window at least five times a week and placed the pillows on the street to prevent him from injuring himself in the future.

    The man began to proclaim himself as being mediocre for having such a screwed-up life which was overheard by the nearby Clone Ranger. Yelling his battle cry, “Time for Mediocrity to rise!” the Clone Ranger snatched the man beneath one arm, left a silver test tube as his calling card, and rode off down the street on his faithful stick horse Xerox.

    Later the man was strapped to a table in the Clone Ranger's secret lair inside an abandoned carnival, where he is told about the plan to clone him and countless others like himself to lead a revolt against those in power deemed to be intellectually superior. Howard and Beverly tracked down the Clone Ranger and attempted to rescue the man, but a fire was started when Howard leaped at the Clone Ranger who was bumped into his nearby machinery used for cloning that began sparking and igniting nearby flammable materials. 

     As the building began to burn Howard and Beverly managed to pull the mediocre man to safety. Believing the Clone Ranger's plans were sound he tells Howard and Beverly that maybe it was time for nerds of the world to speak up and that they were silent for too long. He then turned around and hysterically ran back into the burning building leaving his fate as unlikely.

--Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 1978)

    The unidentified man the Clone Ranger planned to clone looked like the strip's own writer Marv Wolfman. (See image to the right)

images: (without ads)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 16th) pan1 (main image)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 16th) pan1 (riding Xerox)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 23rd) pan2 (quack attack)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 23rd) pan3 (burning lab)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 8th) pan2 (Mediocre Man)
Marv Wolfman Stock photo found online from ComicVine website

Appearances:
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September 4th - 30th, 1978) - Marv Wolfman (writer), Alan Kupperberg (pencils), Stan Lee ?? (editor)

First Posted: 09/04/2021
Last updated: 09/01/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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