In every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without actively retconning away the previous story. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today, based on a suggestion from regular CSBG suggester, Steve R., we look at how Impossible Man's powers have changed over the years!

The Impossible Man debuted in Fantastic Four #11 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Dick Ayers)...

He was an annoying alien shapeshifter who liked to drive the Fantastic Four crazy whenever he would come to Earth for some fun.

In that first story, though, he transformed into something metallic...

and also basically just a group of yellow flowers...

It sure doesn't seem like there was any limit on how he could transform into things, right?

This was born out in later stories, like when he transformed into Sue Richards in Fantastic Four #175...

and Jimmy Carter in Marvel Two-In-One #27...

It seems like the big changeover occurred in New Mutants Annual #3 (by Chris Claremont, Alan Davis and Paul Neary), where Impossible Man lost a transformation contest with Warlock because Impossible Man was limited to just the colors purple and green...

That's pretty much been the case for Impossible Man ever since, like during the classic DC/Marvel crossover event (Superman/Silver Surfer) where Impossible Man faces off against Mister Mxyzptlk and Impossible Man is stuck to just green and purple versions of items and people...

I think, all things said and done, that he probably works a bit better with the purple and green limitation. Not because I really care about limiting the power levels of a joke character like the Impossible Man, but because it leads to really cool visuals like Impossible Man transforming into famous characters while maintaining his purple and green color palette, like when he was Magnum P.I. and Garfield in this single page in X-Men Annual #7...

Thanks to Steve for the great suggestion!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a future Abandoned Love, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!