Ragdoll (rag doll). The Flash's new enemy will be played by DC's famous Spider-Man Rag Doll

Peter Merkel, aka Rag Doll, will appear in . It is possible that he will only become a "villain of the week" and not a recurring character, or will serve as the main antagonist of the season.

In the comics, several villains were hiding under this nickname. Most likely, we will see a combination of them on the screen. One of the best is recognized as its embodiment on the pages of the “Secret Six,” which included Peter Merkel Jr. Notably, this character is the son of the original Rag Doll, lacking his father's super-flexibility. In order to continue the family business, he modified his body and became almost the same supervillain.

But could the Secret Six itself appear in DC series in this case, as a union of enemies of everyone’s favorite heroes? Considering that the Six have always been associated with the Suicide Squad, and many of the Squad have been in the Suicide Squad, this is quite possible. However, predicting such an outcome is still quite risky.

Ace acrobat Troy James will play a circus performer in the series. And, of course, this is the perfect cast. And how does he do it?

James usually plays possessed creatures and other strange creatures in horror films. Not surprising, because some of his talents are really scary - just look at the “spider gait” borrowed from the horror film “The Exorcist”. The acrobat has roles in TV series

(Puppet Master) his real name Philip Masters- is a fictional character and supervillain who appears in comic books published by .

The Puppeteer uses radioactive clay to create dolls of people that he can control, apparently he has some sort of psionic ability that allows him to do this. He has a hatred for the Thing, who is caring for his stepdaughter, Alicia Masters. One day, he tried to seize power over the world, but the Fantastic Four team interfered with his plans.

Publication history

His first appearance was in the comic Fantastic Four vol. 1 #8 (November 1962), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. His origin was shown in the comic Marvel Team-Up vol. 1 No. 6 (January 1973).

Biography

Philip Masters, the man who would become the Puppeteer, was born in the small fictional Balkan country of Transia in Dragorin. He moved to the United States at the age of eight. He was socially awkward and had no friends. (According to the comic Spider-Man Family#4, his mother died when he was still young and he was often teased, causing him to use his dolls as "friends".)

After he graduated from college, he went into business with Jacob Reiss. Philip was jealous of Reiss's wealth and family and decided to sabotage his workplace, but Reiss caught him in the act and while they were fighting, Reiss was accidentally killed in an explosion. Reiss's daughter, Alicia, was caught and blinded in the explosion.

Framing the explosion as an accident, he began a relationship and then married Reiss's wife, Marcia, and adopted Alicia. When his wife died, it was a great loss for him, which was more than he could bear, and he lost his mind. It was during this time that he first began experimenting with radioactive clay, which he somehow was able to use for psionic control of certain people. He wanted to use this talent to its fullest and developed a plan to take over the world. He didn't get very far with this plan before being stopped by the Fantastic Four. But, he succeeded in capturing Invisible Girl and secretly organized a massive prison break using warden. He fell out of a window after tripping and appeared to have been killed.

The Puppeteer was shown to have survived, but spent months in the hospital. He then controlled Namor and used him to fight against the Fantastic Four. He also turned the Human Torch against each other. He teamed up with the Mad Thinker and used the original X-Men to fight the Fantastic Four. Teaming up again with the Thinker, who would become his frequent ally, he fought against the Thing and the Torch again, and even used animated life-like mannequins to fight against them.

The Puppeteer was later seen among a group of criminals assembled by Doctor Doom. He then controlled Namor again. He went against the original X-Men using the mind control of Mimic. He also sparked the feud between Hulk and Namor by controlling the Hulk.

Capabilities

The Puppeteer has no superhuman abilities, but he has a gifted intellect and has been once brilliant biologist with a doctorate in biology He is an extremely talented craftsman and very gifted in experimental science. His most outstanding ability is to create highly realistic puppets, which he modeled after real people. Through intense concentration, he is able to control the physical actions of any puppet he models. How he did this was never explained other than that he used some type of special radioactive mixture. The clay he used in this mixture was magical, slightly radioactive, and came from a remote area near Mount Vandegor, Transia. The Puppeteer may have some type of psionic ability that complements this process, allowing him to control his victims, although the process may be entirely a result of the magical properties of the clay. He cannot control the actions of extremely mindless creatures, and his control over creatures may be violated if creatures have incredibly strong willpower. His control is limited to one person, while the power of control decreases with increasing distance from the person under his control.

In the media
Cartoon series

Marvel Superheroes" in the part about Namor.

The Puppeteer appeared in 1982 in the animated series " The incredible Hulk" in the episode "Bruce Banner: Unmasked", voiced by Bob Holt.

Fantastic Four" in the episode "Origins of the Fantastic Four", voiced by Neil Ross.

Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes", voiced by Alvin Sanders.

Movies

In the extended version of the film" Fantastic Four", The Thing notices the dolls in the scene with Alicia Masters, in her art gallery. She says that they belong to her father.

Games

The Puppeteer has appeared in the game" Fantastic Four" released in 2005, voiced by James C. Mathis III. Although you don't directly fight him, he sends several exhibits to the museum (eg mummies and dinosaurs) to protect Alicia. At the end, after the heroes destroy the statue of Horus, he runs out the back door.

Samantha Boyd ducked under the flimsy police barricade and looked up at the Statue of Justice that towered over London's infamous Old Bailey court. Although she, according to the plan, was supposed to symbolize strength and justice, today the woman saw her in her true form - in the guise of a desperate lady who has lost all illusions, ready at any moment to fall from the roof down to the pavement. Naturally, she was not wearing a blindfold, unlike her sisters around the world, because when it comes to issues such as racism and corruption in law enforcement, “blind justice” turns into only a concept for naive simpletons.

Because of the crowd of journalists who had swarmed into central London and had become so established that they had turned it into an absurd middle-class slum, all the surrounding streets and tube stations were once again closed. Grocery packaging bearing the Marks & Spencer and Prêt-à-Mange logos stood proudly from the trash-strewn asphalt. Sleeping bags from famous designers were put away to the whir of electric razors; a crappy travel iron in the hands of some guy completely refused to hide the fact that its owner slept in the shirt and tie that he owned in only one copy.

Samantha was nervous as she made her way through the crowd. After a six-minute walk from Chancery Lane station, perspiration appeared on her forehead, and a lock of platinum hair had come out in the very place where she had previously pinned it in a vain attempt to change her appearance. The press identified everyone involved in the trial from the very beginning. Today, on the forty-fifth day of the trial, Samantha’s portraits managed to spread around all the major newspapers in the world. She even once had to call the police when one particularly persistent reporter followed her to her home in Cleveland, not reacting in any way to her attempts to get rid of him. Determined to no longer attract unnecessary attention to herself, the woman walked, looking straight ahead and not raising her head.

There were two queues along Newgate Street, one leading to a row of dry toilets that clearly couldn't meet the needs of everyone in need, the other to a Starbucks coffee shop with a flashing neon sign. Emerging from the whirlpool seething between these two poles, Samantha moved towards the police officers guarding the entrance to the courtrooms. When she accidentally found herself in the field of view of one of the television cameras, dozens of them reporting from the scene, a short journalist pounced on her and angrily shouted something in Japanese.

“The last day,” Samantha reminded herself, leaving in her wake a stream of completely incomprehensible abuse. Just eight hours and her life will return to normal.

At the door, an unfamiliar policeman carefully examined her identification card and subjected her to a procedure now familiar to her: locking her personal belongings in a special box; in response to the metal detector, explain that she physically cannot remove her wedding ring; silently become annoyed at the sweat stains during the search, and then walk down the featureless corridor and join the other eleven jurors for a cup of lukewarm instant coffee.

Due to unprecedented global media attention and the incident at Samantha's home, the jury was ordered to be placed under guard in one location, which immediately sparked public anger as the hotel's bills cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds. They used to talk about different topics in the mornings, but now, after two months of hearings, each of them mainly complained about the monotony of the evening menu in the restaurant, about the back pain after spending the night in a hotel bed, and lamented the absence of a wife, husband, children or final season of the series “Lost” – who was missing what.

When the bailiff finally came for the jury members, the tense silence hidden by the innocent chatter broke free. The foreman of the jury, an elderly man named Stanley, whom the others had appointed to this position only because of his striking resemblance to Gandalf, slowly stood up and left the room. Others followed him.

The Old Bailey, the number one court known throughout the world, heard only criminal cases of the highest importance. Here, such sinister celebrities as Crippen, Sutcliffe and Dennis Nielsen answered for their terrible sins from the dock. Artificial light flooded the room through a huge frosted glass window overhead, illuminating the dark wood paneling and green leather upholstery.

Having taken her usual place in the front row, closest to the dock, Samantha suddenly realized that the white dress she had sewn herself was a little short. She placed the folder with the case on her lap, much to the displeasure of the lustful old man, the foreman of the jury, who on the first day of the hearing almost trampled on his neighbor, wanting to sit next to her.

Unlike the courtrooms glorified in American films, where the elegantly dressed defendant is expected to sit at the same table with the defense, at the Old Bailey the defendant sat in front of a formidable audience completely alone. The low but thick glass partitions surrounding his elevation once again emphasized that the person inside posed a great danger to others.

That he is guilty until his innocence is proven.

Directly opposite the dock, to Samantha's left, sat the judges. Above the chair in the center of the hall - the only one that remained free during the entire trial - against the background of the kingdom's coat of arms hung a sword with a gilded hilt. The court clerks, prosecution and defense were located in the center; the public gallery along the far wall was crowded with excited, sleep-deprived spectators who, in order to get a seat to witness the end of this mind-boggling process, had to camp overnight at the entrance to the Old Bailey. In the depths of the hall, in God-forsaken places under the gallery, sat a variety of small people, one way or another involved in the process: experts, whose opinion the lawyers might or might not need; court clerks; and, of course, the policeman who arrested the suspect was a detective nicknamed the Wolf, William Oliver Leighton-Cokes, who sat in the very center of this motley gathering.

Wolf was present in the courtroom for all forty-six days and spent countless hours overlooking the dock from his discreet position near the exit. Strongly built, with a weathered face and dark blue eyes, he looked about forty years old, maybe a little older. Samantha thought that the detective could well be called attractive if he did not give the impression of a man who had not slept for several months and carried the heavy burden of the world around him on his shoulders. Although, to be honest, that’s how it was.

The Cremator Killer, as the press dubbed him, became the most bloodthirsty serial killer in the history of London. Twenty-seven victims in twenty-seven days, all prostitutes between the ages of fifteen and sixteen. The enormous interest in this case, among other things, was also due to the fact that it opened the eyes of the ill-informed masses to the harsh reality happening right under their noses, on the very streets where they live. Most of the victims were found still smoldering - he pumped them full of tranquilizers and burned them alive, while the fire destroyed almost every conceivable evidence. And then the atrocities suddenly stopped abruptly. In the absence of suspects, the police were at a loss. All the time the investigation lasted, a barrage of criticism fell on her - for inaction and failure to stop the death of teenagers, but when eighteen days had passed since the last murder, Detective Wolf took the criminal into custody.

The simplest and reliable way Teaching children to relax means teaching them to alternate between strong muscle tension and subsequent relaxation. Therefore, this and the following game will help you do this in a playful way.

So, invite your child to imagine that he is a soldier. Remember with him how to stand on the parade ground - standing at attention and standing still. Have the player pretend to be such a military man as soon as you say the word “soldier.” After the child stands in such a tense position, say another command - “rag doll”. When performing it, a boy or girl should relax as much as possible, lean forward slightly so that their arms dangle as if they were made of fabric and cotton wool. Help them imagine that their whole body is soft and pliable. The player must then become a soldier again, etc.

Note. Such games should be completed at the relaxation stage, when you feel that the child has had enough rest.

“These cats are in a state of muscle relaxation, so their sensitivity threshold is much lower than that of other cats.”, - said Jackie Vanekem, president of the Belgian breed club ragdoll.

The well-known cat Josephine was crossed with a Burmese cat and gave birth to wonderful, absolutely normal kittens with one small drawback - decreased muscle tone, but their character was distinguished by extraordinary obedience and softness, uncharacteristic of ordinary cats. It is still unknown why exactly the cats acquired such qualities, but it has been established that the road accident has nothing to do with this.

Anna Parker, who is Josephine's owner, became interested in these changes and decided to engage in breeding to create a new breed of cats. By crossing the mildest cats with the most pronounced relaxation of muscle tone, Ann by 1965 was able to obtain several generations of kittens with strengthened characteristics she needed. She named the new breed " Ragdoll", which means "rag doll" in English. A little later, the newly bred breed moved to Europe and became popular in countries such as Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France and many others. But don’t think that the ragdoll can now be found at every turn - in Europe it is still a rare breed, not in comparison with the USA, where it is really very popular.

Cat breeds ragdoll are very different in character from all other cats - they are kinder and softer, calmer, and the unique opportunity to relax the muscles as much as possible is amazing: to feel this, you only need to take a cat of this breed ragdoll in your arms, and you will immediately feel how she surrenders herself to your power and does not strain a single muscle. “Under no circumstances should a Ragdoll be thrown onto the floor - a fall from a height can lead to very unpleasant consequences for the cat, because representatives of this breed do not know how to group themselves in the air and land on their paws,” warns the president of the Swiss Club of Amateurs ragdoll Vinna Tatti, who breeds cats ragdoll over the past five years.

Ragdoll cats are real phlegmatic people, and their good nature has no limits. From nature ragdoll he is quite strong, but he behaves very peacefully, and when attacked, he prefers not to defend himself, but to calmly leave. They, like children, are very trusting and naive, and in conflict situations they are calm. Cats ragdoll- very brave, but they don’t want to show this quality at all. “You need to constantly carefully monitor the ragdoll - he is very defenseless and in some situations helpless. Pay special attention to how he crosses the road. But, of course, there is no need to go to extremes and keep the animal locked up,” notes Vanna Tatti.

Ragdoll very sociable and loves people. "Cats ragdoll have an interesting quality: they love to communicate with people more than with anyone else. They do not like loneliness and consider themselves a full member of the family. If a cat is suddenly left alone, without an owner or her relatives, she immediately becomes depressed and even seems to lose weight before her eyes, she is so sad,” says Jackie Vanekem. “The owner is the center of the universe for her. She is always next to him, adapts to his habits and lifestyle, and sometimes even seems to quietly whisper something to him in a pleasant voice, which is completely incompatible with her rather large build. If the owner is nearby, the ragdoll will not care whether you put a collar and leash on him, whether you take him to the hotel with you, and so on - he will be comfortable and warm with you.”

Ragdoll very calm and affectionate, but not a heavyweight at all - he has plenty of agility. He plays with pleasure and runs very fast! Only with jumping is it a little difficult for him - due to muscle relaxation.

Ragdoll He is also very sociable and friendly, he will get along with any pet. He lives calmly and cheerfully side by side with other cats. He will not fight for his territory - everything is common, everything is for friends. In general, Ragdoll cats are... best friends, calm and kind, who by their very presence personify peace and love for one’s neighbor. They are also very vulnerable and sensitive - so communicate with her carefully, do not scold, otherwise she will take it too to heart. A wonderful companion and comrade, he does not demand much, he treats everything patiently and wisely, he subtly feels his owner - and more than returns all the love and affection given to him.

Males ragdoll real gentlemen can care for a female for two years without moving on to something more. One of the best cats of the Geneva cat club has been waiting for three whole years! True, among them there are those who want to slightly speed up the process.

The Burmese cat differs quite seriously from its brother in sexual terms: sometimes activity begins to manifest itself at a very early age, up to a year. " Ragdoll quite selective in choosing his partner. And some males are so shy that they only admit sexual intercourse within the walls of their own home. Quite often there are monogamous cats who live their whole lives with one, maximum three cats - this is true love!” - Vanna Tatti tells us.

Ragdoll kittens develop physically more slowly than other cat breeds. For example, they can see only two weeks after birth, and the suckling period ends quite late.

At birth, kittens are completely white, the spots appear slowly. To see the real color, you need to wait about two years.

Attention - fake! Since 1965, when the cat breed appeared ragdoll, their representatives were strictly prohibited from crossing with cats of other breeds, so as not to spoil the unique character of these animals. “To begin with, it was necessary to exclude from the offspring representatives of the breed that exhibit aggressive behavior and are prone to independence. Then - raise the remaining ones in a family that will surround them with warmth and care. This is the most important thing - because it is the unique gentle character that distinguishes ragdoll from other cats. Their beauty is only a secondary positive quality, but by no means the main thing,” notes Vanna Tatti.

Breeders who take their business seriously should first of all consult with specialists from the breed club before mating. The latter contains lists of the animals of all Josephine's offspring. This is necessary to ensure the “nobility” of the blood of the animals selected by breeders. The main fighters for the purity of the breed are the American and German clubs of ragdoll cat lovers. Every breeder is carefully registered there. Vigilance is important here: amateurs ragdolls who appreciate and are beautiful appearance, and the wonderful character of these cats, in Europe they often become victims of speculators who can “slip” an unclean breed.

“At the French exhibition they presented for the first time ragdoll- and he turned out to be a Burmese cat, albeit quite gentle and soft in character, but still not like a true representative of a rare breed,” Vanna Tatti tells us. “Nowadays, quite often they carry out fraud and sell fake ragdolls to gullible buyers,” she is indignant. Many of her colleagues agree with her. For example, this is what the head of the Central French Amateur Club says: ragdolls Nicole Vialatt: “In France, very often under the guise ragdolls they sell Burmese cats or half-breeds, which are obtained by crossing Burmese cats with representatives of the Ragdoll breed.”

"Remember that it's not real ragdoll will not exhibit those unique qualities characteristic only of purebred representatives,” warns Jackie Vanekem and adds: “The fact that ragdolls substitute - very illogical and absolutely pointless, since, on the one hand, many “counterfeits” are Burmese cats, and on the other, the breeders themselves reproach Ragdoll cats for their great resemblance to Burmese. From which it follows that it is more profitable for both parties to preserve the uniqueness of each breed and develop in accordance with accepted standards.”
Such hostile attitude of breeders towards ragdoll has two reasons: the growing popularity of the new breed all over the world - which is easy to explain, because first people are attracted by rumors and legends about the breed, and then they are conquered by its beauty and affection ragdoll; and also - for some reason, many breeders still believe that the Ragdoll specifically contains the “disadvantages” of the Burmese. But a bad Burmese is not at all ragdoll!

In the end, the value and uniqueness of the breed are greatly underestimated: it turns out that it contains all the vices that Burmese cat breeders are trying to eradicate. Gradually these bad rumors began to spread to everyone ragdolls, not only to the “mitted” - the “socked” ragdoll, a representative of one of the three currently existing breed varieties that give the desired result when crossed with each other,” explains Vanna Tatti. To get the perfect two-color ragdoll, you need to try very hard, just like if you need to get the perfect “socks” from a Burmese. By the way, the ragdoll standard is very strict, so the “mitted” variety must certainly have “socks.”

“Often judges have a poor understanding of the breed and reward false ragdolls. And the most unfair thing is that the owner of a cat that has participated in the exhibition three times as a ragdoll can demand the issuance of a pedigree, and the club has no right to refuse him,” complains Jackie Vanekem. “Sometimes ‘fake’ ragdolls even became European champions,” nods Nicole Vialatt.
The Ragdoll is a fairly large animal and gives off an air of strength. He is a strong man with well-developed bones, a strong chest and wide hips and shoulders. The neck is short, with well-developed muscles. His body is correctly developed and proportionally built. The weight of a male reaches 6–9 kg, females are much smaller - from 4 to 5 kg.

The Ragdoll is a gentle giant. The gentle look of dark blue eyes speaks without words about the magnificent character of its owner. And the cat’s appearance is incomparable: thick fluffy fur, an elongated body and strong long legs - an invaluable inheritance from the Angora breed!
How can she be confused with a Burmese! Round, with hair between the toes. Silky, almost plush fur, long in some places, shorter in others - especially on the paws. Soft, smooth movements. There is a collar on the neck. The tail is thick at the base, long, woolly, proportional to the length of the body...

For the past twenty years, English breeders have been creating their own variety of Ragdoll, slightly different from the American representative. In the fall of 1987, Nicole Vialatt, the head of a club of 15 people, began selection and gave preference to English representatives of the breed: “This is the most best type. The English Ragdoll has a well-defined nose and very beautiful blue eyes. An American with a straight nose looks too much like a Burmese cat.” The British wanted to achieve visual appeal and an attractive eye color, resulting in a rather beautiful cat that was slightly smaller than an American cat and had a silkier coat,” says Vanna Tatti, who believes that “a mixture of the two types will produce beautiful cats.” Jackie Vanekem also thinks: “Both of these types complement each other wonderfully.” Thus, there are three varieties of the Ragdoll breed:

• colorpoints: similar in color to Siamese cats - light hair on the body and dark hair on the face, ears, tail and paws. The nose and paw pads match the color of the pigmented areas of the body
• "mitted": with white paws, unlike the others, which have dark paws. Hence the name - white “socks”
• two-colored: representatives of this variety have a characteristic patch of white fur on their face in the shape of an inverted V, and pigmentation begins from the eyes and cheeks. The paws are also white.

Each variety comes in four colors: blue, lilac, seal and chocolate.

Since the breed has a standard that was drawn up taking into account the rules and requirements of TICA, the Ragdoll can now gain recognition in cat fanciers' clubs in both the USA and Europe. In America, the two-color variety is officially recognized, the rest are already on the way. Through the efforts of the German Ragdoll Club, which cooperates well with its American colleagues, the English Governing Council of the Cat Fance in 1991 and FIFe in 1992 also officially recognized the new breed - however, so far only a two-color variety. There is still a lot of work ahead.

“Judging at ragdoll shows leaves much to be desired,” laments Jackie Vanekem, citing this example: “According to the standard, the color of the ragdoll must necessarily be dark tones, in contrast to the Siamese and Burmese representatives, which must be lighter in color to contrast with the dark limbs. But we constantly see how at shows judges underestimate ragdolls for their dark color!” But this is not the worst thing. “To test the degree of relaxation of a cat’s muscles and its susceptibility to pain, some judges torture it - and this is simply outrageous and unacceptable!” Jackie Vanekem worries with good reason.

The Ragdoll is gradually becoming more and more popular in the world, and one can hope that the judges will soon finally understand the essence of the breed and will be able to appreciate all its charm, and accordingly change their attitude towards it: naturally, it is difficult to quickly and properly evaluate in an exhibition environment the unique character of a ragdoll cat, but you can at least see its originality, and it’s simply unrealistic not to fall in love with these wonderful and kind cats!

Genetic characteristics of the ragdoll

Reduced muscle tone in Ragdoll cats has not yet been scientifically substantiated. This means that the standard does not yet recognize this property, even though it is one of the important features of the breed.

Regarding color, we can say that the pigmentation of the paws and the dark blue color of the eyes were most likely influenced by the genes of Siamese cats. Two-colored representatives of the Ragdoll and "mitted" breeds have genes that are responsible for the appearance of these beautiful white spots on the body. It’s hard to even imagine how much patience and effort breeders need to achieve the most beautiful distribution of white color across a cat’s coat!

Care

The Ragdoll has a good appetite, but does not have a tendency to become obese. Since it grows slowly, full physical flowering occurs only in the fourth year. The cat is quite large, and therefore has quite large energy needs that need to be fully covered. The skeleton takes a long time to develop and requires the necessary amount of mineral supplements, which your veterinarian will tell you in more detail.

There are no problems with childbirth, the mothers are very warm and attentive to the kittens.

The ragdoll's fur does not get tangled, but it still needs to be combed sometimes, and besides, this process brings a lot of pleasure to the cat - she will definitely purr contentedly in gratitude. During the molting period, of course, more attentive care is necessary.
When outdoors in winter, the Ragdoll's coat becomes long and fluffy - just like Persian cats.