Proteus appears and is referenced often in popular culture.
Proteus appears and is referenced often in popular culture.
The German–American scientist Carl August Rudolph Steinmetz, who had several physical disabilities, changed his name to Charles Proteus Steinmetz. This name reflected his identification with a figure that could easily alter its outward form.
Proteus Lake in Antarctica is named after the deity.
Progress Wrestling has a belt named after Proteus, the Proteus Championship.
In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early prophetic sea god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea". Some who ascribe a specific domain to Proteus call him the god of "elusive sea change", which suggests the changeable nature of the sea or the liquid quality of water. He can foretell the future, but, in a mytheme familiar to several cultures, will change his shape to avoid doing so; he answers only to those who are capable of capturing him. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, meaning "versatile", "mutable", or "capable of assuming many forms". "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability.
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture. Examples of shapeshifters are vampires and werewolves.
Kevin Sydney is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth, the character first appeared in The X-Men #35.
Rifts is a multi-genre role-playing game created by Kevin Siembieda in August 1990 and published continuously by Palladium Books since then. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, deriving elements from cyberpunk, science fiction, fantasy, horror, western, mythology and many other genres.
Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, placing supernatural elements in a contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with a platform for classic fantasy tropes, quixotic plot-elements, and unusual characters—without demanding the creation of an entire imaginary world.
Ellen Louise Ripley is a fictional character and the original protagonist of the Alien film series, played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. Considered one of the greatest characters in science fiction film history, the character earned Weaver worldwide recognition, and remains her most famous role to date. Although she was originally conceived as male for the first Alien film, director Ridley Scott decided early in production to make her a woman.
Proteus is an early Greek water god.
Proty is the name of two characters appearing in media published by DC Comics, primarily in association with the Legion of Super-Heroes. The original Proty first appears in Adventure Comics #308, where Chameleon Boy adopts him as a pet.
Teenagers from Outer Space is a rules-light comedy role-playing game written by Michael A. Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games. It was inspired by gag anime such as Urusei Yatsura and Ranma ½. The game was first released in 1987, when anime was still mostly an underground sensation. The game is currently in its third edition, published in 1997. This edition was retooled to play up the anime inspirations after anime had become more mainstream.
The Legion of Super-Pets is a fictional team of superhero pets in the DC Universe. The original membership included Krypto, Streaky the Supercat, Beppo, and Comet, with the shape-shifting alien Proty II later joining. The team first appeared in Adventure Comics #293, although all of the members except for Comet had appeared individually in earlier issues. The group was removed from mainstream DC Comics continuity in 1986 but a new version appeared in mainstream comics in 2017.
Kevin MacTaggert, best known as Proteus and also called Mutant X, is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and is commonly associated with the X-Men as an antagonist.
Justice is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character appeared in the New Universe imprint of Marvel Comics, primarily as the protagonist of a 32-issue comic book series of the same name published from 1986 to 1989. Most of its run was written by Peter David and penciled by Lee Weeks, though it also featured rare 1980s Marvel work from Keith Giffen. David later reintroduced Justice as a supporting character in Spider-Man 2099, a series with a very different setting. This version of the character, also known as the Net Prophet, was older and had different powers.
Weird West, also known as Weird Western, is a term used for the hybrid genres of fantasy Western, horror Western and science fiction Western. The term originated with DC's Weird Western Tales in 1972, but the idea is older as the genres have been blended since the 1930s, possibly earlier, in B-movie Westerns, comic books, movie serials and pulp magazines. Individually, the hybrid genres combine elements of the Western genre with those of fantasy, horror and science fiction respectively.
The use of nanotechnology in fiction has attracted scholarly attention. The first use of the distinguishing concepts of nanotechnology was "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", a talk given by physicist Richard Feynman in 1959. K. Eric Drexler's 1986 book Engines of Creation introduced the general public to the concept of nanotechnology. Since then, nanotechnology has been used frequently in a diverse range of fiction, often as a justification for unusual or far-fetched occurrences featured in speculative fiction.
InSpectres is a humorous paranormal investigation-themed role-playing game created by Jared Sorensen and independently published in 2002 by Memento Mori Theatricks. The game's story line follows the player's work in a supernatural investigation and elimination company.
The term Rakshasa, originally referring to a demon in Dharmic religions, has been used in western and Japanese literature and popular culture. The following are some examples:
Ghostbusters, subtitled "A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game", is a comedy role-playing game published by West End Games (WEG) in 1986 that is based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters.
"Polymorph" is the third episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf Series III, and the fifteenth in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 28 November 1989. It is considered by some to be the series' best. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, the episode has the crew fighting a shapeshifting, emotion-stealing creature. It is the only Red Dwarf episode to feature a pre-credits warning about the content. The episode was re-mastered, along with the rest of the first three series, in 1998.
Baldanders or Soon-Different is a creature of Germanic literary myth that features protean properties.
A human disguise is a concept in fantasy, folklore, mythology, religion, literature, iconography, and science fiction whereby non-human beings — such as gods, angels, monsters, extraterrestrials, or robots — are able to shapeshift or be disguised to seem human. Stories have depicted the deception as a means used to blend in with people, and science fiction has used the dichotomy to raise questions about what it means to be human.