Dan Turpin

Dan Turpin
Dan Turpin from Superman: Funeral For A Friend Artist Tom Grummett
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	as Brooklyn Detective Comics #64 (June 1942) as Dan Turpin New Gods #5 (November 1971)
Created by	as Brooklyn Joe Simon Jack Kirby as Dan Turpin Jack Kirby
In-story information
Full name	Daniel Turpin
Team affiliations	Metropolis SCU Boy Commandos
Notable aliases	Terrible, Brooklyn

Daniel "Terrible" Turpin is a character published by DC Comics. He first appeared as Brooklyn (due to him being born in New York) in Detective Comics #64 (June 1942), and first appeared as Dan Turpin in New Gods #5 (November 1971).

Publication history

Due to a recent retcon, Dan Turpin was made the adult version of Jack Kirby's Golden Age "kid-gang" character Brooklyn, of the Boy Commandos.^{[citation needed]}

Character biography

Lieutenant Inspector Dan Turpin is a member of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit. In the third Superboy series, Dan Turpin is sent to Hawaii to investigate whether or not they needed a Special Crimes Unit of their own. While initially skeptical, a visit from the violent Darkseid faction, the Female Furies convinces Dan that the islands need an SCU.^[1] In current Superman titles, Turpin is extremely loyal to Inspector Sawyer, before her transfer to Gotham City. His romantic feelings for her fall apart when he learns she is a lesbian. Turpin has a daughter named Maisie.

He has spent a long time fighting threats in Metropolis; such as the rampaging group of mutants called the 'Underworlders'. ^[2]

Current status

Dan Turpin returns in Final Crisis #1 (May 2008). He had been called back from retirement to investigate the case of several missing kids; this evolves into investigating the death of the New God Orion. Orion passes on several cryptic phrases to Turpin, telling him that "He is in you all!" before finally passing away.

In the second issue, he follows clues given to him by Renee Montoya and The Mad Hatter, investigating The Dark Side Club and journeying to the devastated city of Blüdhaven. There he meets up with Reverend Good, and begins to realize that "there's someone in my head."

In the fourth issue, Turpin, after much inner struggle, is turned into the new host body for Darkseid; Darkseid later reveals that he selected Turpin rather than Batman as a host because Batman would have resisted longer than he wished, while Turpin struggled just enough to make his victory sweeter.

In the sixth issue, Batman uses a gun loaded with a Radion bullet, which is poisonous to the New Gods, to shoot Darkseid in the shoulder, Barry Allen and Wally West later managing to outrun the Black Racer- currently apparently after Barry- so that it takes the currently-weakened Darkseid during a confrontation with Superman. After Darkseid is claimed by the Black Racer, Turpin appears to regain control of his body, breathing "In us... in all of us..." in apparent recognition of the meaning of Orion's last words. However, Superman later addresses the body as though Darkseid was still in control of it, and Turpin then vanishes--Darkseid's discorporate spirit being subsequently destroyed with the activation of the Miracle Machine--leaving it unclear what exactly the fate of Turpin is.

In other media

Television

• In the 1990s cartoon Superman: The Animated Series, Turpin was modeled on Jack Kirby^{[citation needed]} and voiced by Joseph Bologna.^{[citation needed]} He appears often in the early part of the series. Turpin is killed by the alien tyrant Darkseid in the latter half of the two-part episode "Apokolips...Now!". The character's funeral was presided over by a rabbi who recited a kaddish. Out of respect for the legacy of Kirby, the character's creator, producer Bruce Timm found a genuine religious leader for the voiceover. He also modeled the cemetery after the real-life one where Jack Kirby is buried.^{[citation needed]}

• Inspector Turpin also appears in the Graphic Audio production of Superman: The Never Ending Battle.

• In "Bulletproof", a season 8 episode of Smallville, Danny Turpin, portrayed by David Paetkau, is a street cop who is partnered with an undercover Clark Kent. ^[3]

References

1. ^ As seen in Superboy vol. 3 #20 (October 1995)
2. ^ "The Adventures Of Superman" #499 (1993)
3. ^ "Smallville Spoilers at the KryptonSite Spoilers Page". Kryptonsite.com. http://www.kryptonsite.com/smallvillespoilers.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-30. 

External links

• Dan Turpin at the DCU Guide