Moose is blessed with great strength. In one sequence, he slides under a car and, from his supine position, lifts it off the ground. As a result, people often have high expectations of him regarding athletics. He has helped Riverdale High School win many matches in basketball, baseball, football, ice hockey, and various other sports, though he seems to have a preference for football. Moose was originally created to serve as the personification and stereotype of the jock—all brawn and no brains. In earlier days, whenever Moose talked he would start off with a "D-uh", decades before it became a colloquialism indicating something so obvious that everybody should know it. When Moose says it, however, he is not being sarcastic.
In the Spanish version of the comic, Moose is called Gorilón ("Big Gorilla"). Moose's given real name is Marmaduke Mason. Other names given for Moose through the early years were Francis "Moose" McGonagal, Merton Matowski and Moose McGee in his very first appearance.[1]
His various tendencies may be inherited from one of his first ancestors to immigrate to the United States. In one story, a Russian named Laslo Kharandashikov befriends Archie Andrews's Scottish forefather Andy Andrews when they meet on the same ship immigrating to the US. Laslo protects Andy from another man who wants to thrash Andy. Andy shows gratitude by finding Laslo's immigration money for him after Laslo nearly loses it. Laslo's difficulty in speaking English leads him to give his name as "Mason" to the immigration officials who let him into the country.
In the Archie I stories, where the gang are depicted as prehistoric cave-dwellers, the character is referred to as the Big Fella or the Big Guy. In such depictions, his hair is long and flowing, he wears a fur loincloth and sometimes carries a club.
In earlier stories, there was a similar character called Lunk who had a reddish crew cut and a slightly leaner build.
In some stories one of the gang, usually Archie, asks for Moose's help with a problem that can only be solved by means of the big guy's strength or intimidating presence. In "Guardian Devil," Archie and Betty meet a runaway child whose hospitalized mother left the boy in her brother's care, but the uncle locked the boy in his room and had wild parties in the house—until Archie brought Moose over to straighten things out; after manhandling the uncle, the intimidating Moose sends the partygoers running with the simple exclamation "Scat!".[2] In another story, Archie had tracked down two thugs who robbed the Chok'lit Shoppe, using a description given by Jughead, whom the cops had found in the store and initially accused. The thugs had just started beating Archie when Moose showed up; he picked the thugs up effortlessly and took them to the police station.[3]
While Moose is easily angered and will threaten to hurt those who upset him, he is very kind, loyal, and compassionate. He is always willing to help somebody in need, and he constantly protects his friends from bullies (often without using punches). He also cares for the well-being of animals and small children. In one story, two young children vandalize a classroom in Riverdale High School but Moose takes the blame for them.
Like most characters, Moose has a sibling who is only featured a few times. Marsha Mason, Moose's freshman sister, is featured in Betty and Veronica Double Digest #20 in "Moose's Sister" (Parts 1 & 2). Marsha starts school at Riverdale High School, and Reggie Mantle began dating her. After two weeks of dating, Moose finds out and beats up Reggie for dating his sister. Marsha has been seen before as a cameo in comics.
In the New Riverdale era, Moose has 5 siblings that appeared in Reggie and Me miniseries and Big Moose one shot comic.
In one story, Moose's great-grandfather is revealed as Lazlo Kharandashikov. At Ellis Island, afraid of being turned away because of his long name, he gives it as Lazlo Mannson, after a passing ice cream wagon. The official changes this further to Leslie Mason. He departs Ellis Island for Chicago.[4]
In one story Moose is shown to have two large, shaggy hounds as pets.[5]
Relationships
Moose is extremely possessive of Midge Klump, his steady girlfriend, and has time and again flattened anybody (Reggie Mantle is his most frequent victim) who seeks her affection. This possessiveness is at times taken to extremes. He's wary of any male even speaking to her, and has at times assaulted even his best friends, inflicting injuries that should, by all rights, be life-altering. There are times when Midge cannot stand Moose's jealousy and ends up scolding him, but every time he just wants to give Midge some space, she decides that she prefers the old Moose.
He has threatened Archie before for various things, but since he knows that Archie is not anywhere near interested in Midge as a girlfriend, this allows Moose to be more tolerant of Archie. At one time, a computer matched Archie and Midge, to Moose's fury, but Archie and Midge both stated that they weren't interested in each other, except as friends, which allowed Moose to cool off. At one point, Archie outright asks permission to date Midge, and Moose declined the request, but it showed, that at least Archie has the courtesy to ask him, whereas Reggie will stoop to dating her on the sly-which often results in Moose pounding up Reggie-as a running gag.
Archie was once able to use Moose's devotion and genuine concern for Midge to help him defeat a gang of robbers who were stealing office electronics from the school. The robbers managed to bind and gag Archie and Jughead and appeared to be getting away, until Archie spotted Moose playing handball on the school grounds through a window. Archie managed to slip a note out the window to Moose saying Midge was the one being held. An angry Moose quickly subdued the gang and freed Archie and Jughead. Rather than being angry over the deception, Moose showed relief that Midge was not in any danger and joked that stopping the crooks was more exciting than playing handball was.
Moose has a mean streak in many comics, and spends a lot of time hiding behind park benches inhabited by his girlfriend, Midge. He does this so that whenever somebody comes along to talk to her, he can jump out and beat him up. Often, these are false alarms; someone just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, in earlier days, whenever Moose talked he would start off with a "D-uh", decades before it became a synonym for something so obvious that everyone should know it. When Moose says it, he is not being sarcastic.
Intelligence
It is often said that he consistently scores straight F's (which, at one point, he thought meant Fantastic). Moose's learning difficulties were later revealed to be dyslexia, which made it harder for him to understand what his teachers, such as Miss Grundy, were writing on the chalkboard. However, Moose's friends never want to see him fail and are always willing to help him study. Moose has done better at school when he needs to, and is able to understand complex subjects like algebra if people explain them to him enough—something which nearly drove Reggie Mantle crazy when he acted as Moose's math tutor.
A theme used in many stories is based on the Riverdale High rules that failing students are not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities. At such times, Moose has to pass a makeup test, and proves to have difficulty studying. Coach Kleats and Moose's teammates depend on Moose to help them win most of their games. Moose can always depend on a friend to tutor him, and he almost always passes the makeup test. However, sometimes their efforts backfire, and they do not win the game even if he did pass.
In today's Archie world, Moose isn't as dumb as he appears. He was offered a full football scholarship to a university. When he found out that they wanted to place him into "joke classes" so he would get good grades, he turned down the offer. When asked about it, he replied "I may be dumb, but there's no reason for me to stay dumb." He also briefly dropped out of high school, but returned upon realizing he would need a college education to get the jobs he would like to try.
Despite his limited intelligence, Moose has a deeply sensitive side, which many people do not see. The first person he opens up to is Dilton Doiley. Moose has a deep admiration of Dilton because of his intelligence; Moose calls him his "little buddy" and will go to any length to help the diminutive genius. When Moose feels discouraged by other people's opinions of him, Dilton is the first to stick up for him. In one story, walking through the snow, the two discuss Moose's thoughts and feelings. At this point, Dilton finds that despite what people think of him, Moose has a poetic and philosophical view of certain things.
Appearance
Moose is a large fellow with a muscular build and blond hair. In early stories, he wears his hair in a crew cut. The more modern version of him sports a shaggier hairstyle
Alternate versions
In Afterlife with Archie, Moose attends the Halloween school dance when the zombie apocalypse starts. When a zombified Jughead attacks the school dance, he and the others escape to Veronica Lodge's home. They decide to go swimming to take their mind off of things. In private, Midge confides in Moose that she got a cut on her hand during the confusion at the school dance, although she doesn't know from whom. Moose tries to convince her to tell the others but she disinfects the wound and reassures him that she won't turn by saying it would've already happened by now. She curls up with Moose and tells him that she loves him. When next they are seen, Midge and Moose have both turned into zombies and attack their friends who are in the pool. Smithers activates the aluminum pool cover, trapping the two zombified lovers in there.
Moose appeared in The New Archies, a 1987 re-imagining of Archie and the gang. Moose was portrayed as a pre-teen in junior high. He was voiced by Victor Erdos.
Moose appears in the TV movie Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, portrayed by Jeff Hochendoner. He and Midge are married with a son and a successful chiropractic business.
Moose appears in Riverdale, a drama series for The CW, portrayed by Cody Kearsley.[6] In this series, Moose is a bisexual teenager who has a sexual relationship with Kevin Keller and later dates Midge Klump who is supportive of Moose's sexuality.
Cameos
Moose has appeared briefly in The Simpsons episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts", along with Archie, Reggie and Jughead, where they drive up to the Simpsons' house and dump Homer unceremoniously onto the front lawn. Moose then warns Homer to "Stay out of Riverdale!"[7] Later, Homer, while reading an Archie comic, calls them all "stuck-up Riverdale punks."
Moose shows up in Robot Chicken in an Archie spoof of Final Destination, where he fails to save Miss Grundy from a falling car and is tried for and put to death for her alleged murder.
Related Research Articles
Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper is one of the main characters appearing in American comic books published by Archie Comics. She is the lead guitarist, percussionist and one of the three singers of The Archies. The character was created by Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater, and first appeared in Pep Comics #22, on the first page of the first Archie story, serving as a love interest to Archie Andrews.
Reginald "Reggie" Mantle is a fictional teenager in stories published by Archie Comics; he is introduced by writer-artist Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater in Jackpot Comics #5. He also appears in CW's Riverdale. He is the frenemy of Archie Andrews, as well as the bassist of The Archies. The live-action version of Reggie is portrayed by Ross Butler and Charles Melton in Riverdale and Vedang Raina in The Archies.
Archibald "Archie" Andrews, created in 1941 by publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana in collaboration with writer Vic Bloom, is the main character in the Archie Comics franchise, including the long-running Archie Andrews radio series, a syndicated comic strip, The Archie Show, Archie's Weird Mysteries, and Riverdale. With the creation of Archie Andrews, publisher John Goldwater hoped to appeal to fans of the Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney. Archie Andrews is the rhythm guitarist and one of the three singers of the fictional band The Archies. He is portrayed by KJ Apa on Riverdale and Agastya Nanda in The Archies. For his physical appearance, he mainly has red hair, freckles on his cheeks, and light-colored skin. In Archie's Weird Mysteries, he appears to be of Scottish-American descent, as shown in the episode "The Day the Earth Moved", when his father wanted to keep with their family tradition and wear a kilt while ringing the bell of Riverdale.
Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones III is one of the fictional characters created by Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater in Archie Comics who first appeared in the first Archie story, from Pep Comics #22. He is the drummer of the Archies and is a son of Forsythe Pendleton Jones II; in one of the early Archie newspaper comic strips, he is identified as John Jugworth Jones III. He has a white sheepdog named Hot Dog and a younger sister, Forsythia "Jellybean" Jones.
Riverdale is a fictional town in the United States where most of the characters live and appear in Archie Comics. Conflicting details on its geographic location have been given over the years. It is located near the fictional town of Greendale, home of Sabrina the Teenage Witch comic book series. In the television series Riverdale, it is located near Greendale related to the television series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Waldo Weatherbee is a fictional character in the Archie Comics universe. Mr. Weatherbee is the principal of Riverdale High School, where Archie Andrews is a student. To Riverdale students and (most) staff, he is commonly called Mr. Weatherbee, due to his authority position. Sometimes Archie and his friends playfully call him The Bee. Mr. Weatherbee is a heavyset, no-nonsense man who dresses in fairly old-fashioned clothes, including wearing pince-nez eyeglasses perched on the tip of a vermiform nose and a tiny wisp of a toupee that perpetually flies off whenever he is upset or startled. Principal Weatherbee is portrayed by Peter James Bryant in Riverdale.
Dilton Donald Doiley, originally Dilbert Doiley, is a fictional character in the Archie Comics universe, where he is considered the smartest teenager in Riverdale High School.
Ethel Muggs is a fictional character frequently featured in Archie Comics. She is a student of Riverdale High School, sometimes known to her schoolmates by the nickname Big Ethel, though this nickname has largely fallen out of use since the 1980s.
Midge Klump is a fictional character appearing in Archie Comics. She frequently appears as the girlfriend of Moose Mason and the unrequited crush of Reggie Mantle. The live-action version of Midge was portrayed by Emilija Baranac in the television take on Archie Comics produced by The CW, Riverdale.
Archie's Weird Mysteries is an animated television series based on the characters by Archie Comics. The series premise revolves around a Riverdale High physics lab gone awry, making the town of Riverdale a "magnet" for B movie-style monsters. All the main characters solve strange mysteries in a format similar to both Scooby-Doo and The X-Files.
Little Archie is a comic book published by Archie Comics from 1956 to 1983, lasting 180 issues. Little Archie #1 is considered to be "scarce" by the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.
This is a list of various alternate universes featuring characters from Archie Comics. Most Archie stories take place within a setting that is gradually updated over the years, and events in one stories are not commonly referenced in others, but those stories remain largely in continuity with each other. However, there have been several series of stories that take place outside of this continuity, featuring alternate versions of the characters in different settings.
"Bad Boy Trouble" is an American comic book story by writer Melanie J. Morgan and artists Steven Butler and Al Milgrom that was originally serialized in Betty & Veronica Double Digest #151–154. The story features Betty and Veronica, and is notable because of its length and because it was the first of an occasional series of Archie Comics stories drawn in a more realistic style. Also unusual for Archie Comics, the story was collected into a trade paperback edition within a month after the original serialization was completed. The story is based on the Riverdale High novel Bad News Boyfriend.
Life with Archie is a comic book published by Archie comics from 1958 to 1991. It featured Archie Andrews in adventure stories that were more dramatic than the standard Archie tales. In 2010, it was revived as a magazine-sized comic devoted to stories that grew out of Archie Marries Veronica/Archie Marries Betty. Archie's character was killed in the second to last issue, Life with Archie #36.
The following is a list of members of the families of Archie's Gang appearing in Archie Comics. Primarily featured are the parents of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge and Jughead Jones.
Afterlife with Archie is a comic book published by Archie Comics beginning in 2013, depicting a zombie apocalypse that begins in the town of Riverdale in an alternative reality. It is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, with art by Francesco Francavilla, and is inspired by a zombie-themed variant cover which Francavilla did for an issue of Life with Archie.
Jughead: The Hunger is an ongoing comic book series published by Archie Horror and Archie's Madhouse, imprints of Archie Comics, beginning in 2017. The story, which takes place outside of the main Archie Comics continuity, focuses on Jughead Jones and his family's dark legacy to explain the sinister origin of his hunger. The one-shot "pilot" was created by writer Frank Tieri and artist Michael Walsh.
Blossoms 666 is a 5-issue comic book miniseries published by Archie Horror, an imprint of Archie Comics, in 2019. The story, which takes place in an alternate reality from the main Archie Comics continuity, focuses on siblings Cheryl and Jason Blossom as they compete for the title of Anti-christ. The series was created by writer Cullen Bunn and artist Laura Braga.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
