L.L. BURBANK
Real Name: L.L. Burbank (first and middle names unrevealed; see comments)
Identity/Class: Extradimensional
(Earth-712/Earth-S)
human technology user
Occupation: Movie director
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Squadron Supreme (Amphibian/Kingsley Rice, Cap'n Hawk/James Dore Jr., Doctor Spectrum/Joseph Ledger, Golden Archer/Wyatt McDonald, Hyperion/Mark Milton, Lady Lark/Linda Lewis, Tom Thumb/Thomas Thompson, Whizzer/Stanley Stewart)
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: Master Menace (Emil Burbank, brother)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile on Earth-712
First Appearance: Thor
I#280 (February, 1979)
Powers/Abilities: L.L. Burbank was a renowned film director, and was skilled at operating the advanced motion picture cameras provided by Hyperion.
Height: Unrevealed
(6' (by approximation))
Weight: Unrevealed (190 lbs. (by approximation))
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Bald
History:
(Thor I#280 (fb) - BTS) - The past of
L.L. Burbank is unrevealed, but at some point he chose a different path
in life than his criminally-inclined brother and entered the film
industry.
As an act of charity to help his world's League of Nations Children's Fund, the heroic Hyperion agreed to make a movie featuring the public portions of his life -- the movie was to be directed by L.L. Burbank, to whom Hyperion supplied some advanced filming equipment.
(Thor I#280) - Since one segment of the
film would deal with the clash between the Squadron Supreme and the
Avengers (@ Avengers I#148),
Hyperion used a dimensional teleporter to travel to Earth-616 and
enlist the aid of the Avengers; but the other Avengers were away from
their mansion, so Hyperion took Thor to his world and gave him a
guided tour.
When the two heroes got to the film set, Hyperion introduced the thunder god to the film's director. Burbank hastily excused himself because he had to check on some script re-writes, but he commented that he loved Thor's "nutty accent"...
Comments: Created by Roy Thomas and Wayne Boring.
...and while Burbank was at his script conference, his evil brother Emil showed up with Hyperion's evil duplicate from Earth-616, and their resultant battle with Thor and the Squadron Supreme gave the crew enough film footage for two movies.
Since Hyperion is the Marvel equivalent of Superman, the "L.L." in Burbank's name was probably an in-joke/reference to those initials which are so prevalent among characters in Superman's life (e.g. Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, Lori Lemaris, etc.) -- Burbank also seemed to have a slight resemblance to former DC editor Julius Schwartz.
It was never revealed what the initials in Burbank's name stood for, so I propose that his full name be Lucas Lee Burbank (after movie directors George Lucas and Ang Lee).
BTW - Emil Burbank is
patterned after Superman's
foe Lex Luthor,
and his name is probably derived from real-life botanist Luther
Burbank - (Luthor, Burbank...get it?)
Although Emil Burbank first appeared in Thor I#280,
he was first mentioned a few years earlier in Avengers I#148--in this
story, the Avengers were transported to Earth-712, and at one point,
while the Vision is fought Hyperion on the street, Hyperion grabbed a
lamppost and proceeded to tie up the Vision with it, and he mentioned
that he had tried this stunt previously on his foe
Burbank.
And Wayne Boring, the guest penciller for this story, was the primary artist for DC's Superman in the 1950s. --Ron Fredricks
New and improved images + physical stats by Ron Fredricks.
Profile by John Kaminski
CLARIFICATIONS:
L.L. Burbank has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Thor I#280, p9, pan2 (Main Image - L.L. Burbank, sitting at advanced camera)
Thor I#280, p9, pan4 (Headshot - L.L. Burbank (profile))
Thor I#280, p9, pan3 (L.L. Burbank, sitting at advanced camera)
Appearances:
Thor I#280
(February, 1979) - Don & Maggie Thompson (plot), Roy Thomas
(writer), Wayne Boring (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Joe Rosen
(letters), C. Gafford (colors), Jim Shooter (editor)
First Posted: 04/16/2008
Last updated: 10/01/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to http://www.g-mart.com/ for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!