Men In Black

## An Organization Born From Necessity

By 1961 it was common knowledge that we are not alone. Astronauts had seen plenty of aliens by then, such as the Selenites on the moon, and some of them even came to Earth, such as the Krypton-born Superman and the dangerous Molluscs from Mars. However, there was little in the way of government regulation in regards to dealing with extraterrestrials, at least in the United States. Britain had its own system in place, with the Interplanet Space Fleet dealing with aliens on their own worlds and the Torchwood Institute protecting the homefront. America simply regarded the whole thing as not their problem and, after 1938, typically relied on its superheroes to handle any problems they may cause.

However, in the 1950s things began to spiral out of control for the American government. 1951 saw a disastrous encounter where an alien named Klaatu, who only desired to discuss a peaceful end to the nuclear arms race that he and his race feared would eventually kill all life on the planet, was almost immediately shot at on sight and later hunted by the military on orders of paranoid leaders. A precious tool that could have been used to view life on other planets, initially brought as a gift by Klaatu for President Harry Truman, was destroyed when it was mistaken for a gun.

Another tragedy occurred in October 1957, when a giant robot sent from another planet crash-landed in Maine. There it befriended a child who tried to keep its existence secret, but this largely benevolent and even childlike automaton was soon revealed to the world and targeted for destruction by military forces. Only after the incident, largely spurred by the machinations of a paranoid, self-serving government agent, did prominent people in Washington DC realize the potential ally they had lost in what was soon dubbed "The Iron Giant".

At this point, an unknown former government official felt that enough was enough and there needed to be a more coordinated response group for such events as alien visitors. In 1961, the Men in Black, a powerful organization virtually unknown to the American public, was established for the purpose of dealing with extraterrestrial negotiations and keeping as much of it hidden as possible in order to prevent further catastrophes. This means that most immigrants from other planets are allowed to pass as human, but they could do very little to conceal the existence of Galactus once it sent a herald to New York City announcing his imminent arrival.

## Agents

Among their first agents, and certainly among their best and brightest, were two young men from Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Arthur Fonzarelli and Richard Cunningham, respectively known as Agent A and Agent C. For qualifications, Cunningham had military experience, marking him as a man of action; and Fonzarelli had natural compassion for those different than him, having been a champion of African-American civil rights starting in the earliest years of the movement. They also previously met and foiled the plot of an Orkan named Mork to take Cunningham back to his homeworld for study. Cunningham only thought this adventure was a dream until he was deneuralyzed, which is not surprising considering that the neuralyzer is Orkan technology. Fonzarelli, however, was never neuralyzed, which partly spurred him to become a Man in Black. (An emissary told the Orkans that abduction without consent was prohibited on Earth, and they later sent Ork to Earth to study Earthlings in their natural environment instead.)

To further prepare them for the role, the two Milwaukee men and friend/potential candidate Ralph Malph were picked up and taken on adventures around the world and cosmos. Their handler and recruiter, known to them only as Cupcake, was a Time Lady, one of the last Gallifreyans and a co-founder of the organization. Also with them was “Mr. Cool,” a Remoolian in disguise as a talking dog, which started a trend among Remoolian MIBs. Malph didn’t quite make the cut and had his mind wiped of any memories of his travels while Cunningham and Fonzarelli were inducted. Once inside they met the man who recommended them in the first place: Charles Cunningham, older brother of Richard. Richard could not remember him because of the standard MIB process where each member’s existence is erased as fully as possible, including the neuralyzing of those close to them, and it was a happy reunion.

The organization shaped much of the half-century, retooling certain foreign technologies for use by Earthlings and bringing in many immigrants who sought a peaceful place largely kept away from intergalactic conflicts. Earth basically became an escape point for refugees. Some of them even became famous and successful, including director George Lucas. A refugee from a galaxy far, far away, Lucas was fascinated with Earth's unique art form of cinema and later released film adaptations of a historical war in his home galaxy starting in 1977. His Star Wars series became massively successful, especially among Earth-based aliens who saw that their history and heritage did not need to be forgotten.

One prominent agent in the 1990s was Agent L, who was viewed as more than qualified for the job even before he was employed because in 1982, when he was only a boy, he befriended an extraterrestrial and managed to return it to its home planet of Brodo Asagi in the Andromeda Galaxy. After the experience, he still felt the emotional link they shared when the alien was on Earth. When the Men in Black personally asked him to join them, considering that he already knew the truth about aliens and could handle diplomacy with them well, he did not hesitate to join. His main goal as Agent L has always been to find his former friend, but Andromedans are largely unable to contact Earth and other Milky Way galaxies due to the massive distance.

The job, of course, is not for everyone, and even the Men in Black make errors when hiring. For every Agent J and Agent K, two other esteemed members of the agency, there may well be an Agent T. Agent T started out as an eager cadet but gradually lost his mind as he began to see more of the horrors of the fact that we are not alone. Upon the MIB's discovery that Pluto was an entire world filled with monstrosities largely incapable of being processed by the human mind, he finally broke. While the MIB got busy thinking of ways to discourage space travel to Pluto (eventually deciding on the abstract solution of getting scientists to reclassify it as not actually a planet), Agent T found an absolutely bizarre new life as a costumed crimefighting lunatic known as The Tick.

## References

1. ↑ The First Men in the Moon (book)
2. ↑ Superman (comic series)
3. ↑ The War of the Worlds (book and radio serial)
4. ↑ Dan Dare (comic series)
5. ↑ Doctor Who (TV series)
6. ↑ The Day the Earth Stood Still (film)
7. ↑ The Iron Giant (film)
8. ↑ In the film, the existence of aliens is entirely unknown to the general public. Alas, it is not the same in the Fiction Multiverse, as mentioned in the first paragraph of this entry, but this is how I try to work it in. They just try to keep as much as they can a secret.
9. ↑ Fantastic Four (comic series)
10. ↑ Happy Days (TV series). Baffled? Don't blame ya, but it makes sense in my weird little head! These two are from the right time period, I would say in their 20s by the time 1961 rolls around, and they have experience.
11. ↑ Agent C refers to how Fonzie would call Richie's dad "Mr. C", and Agent A, besides being Arthur's first initial, refers to his catchphrase of "Aaaaay!"
12. ↑ Mork and Mindy (TV series). Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that this is a spin-off of Happy Days based on an episode where Mork tries to kidnap Richie? The more you freaking know. Before a spin-off show was made, it was revealed to be all just a dream of Richie's, but after the show came out, a new ending was filmed where it turned out that Mork erased the incident from Richie's mind so that he only thought it was a dream.
13. ↑ The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (TV series). This is one bizarre spin-off cartoon - and you thought Joannie Loves Chachi was a weird idea. Initially, it was two weird for me to include, but /u/Torinju was more level-headed than I and worked very hard to convince my stubborn butt to do the obvious and put this in. After a lot of debating by him, with some back-up from /uthecnoNSMB, it’s finally in this entry.
14. ↑ A reference to good ol’ Frank the Pug.
15. ↑ Chuck disappears after the second season of the show without explanation. Found one!
16. ↑ George Lucas, along with Steven Spielberg and Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfield and several celebrities, are revealed to be aliens monitored by the MIB in the first movie. Took that sight gag and rolled with it, which seems to happen a lot when I'm writing things for this!
17. ↑ E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (film). Agent L is none other than a grown-up Elliot, who still loves and misses his friend.
18. ↑ Star Wars (film series). In Episode I: The Phantom Menace, there is a cameo appearance by members of E.T.’s species. Expanded universe material they come from a world known as Brodo Asagi, which in one of that galaxy’s languages means “The Green Planet.”
19. ↑ The tagline for E.T. states that E.T.’s homeworld is three-million light-years away. The Andromeda Galaxy is close enough for his homeworld to be there. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace establishes that E.T.’s species lives in the galaxy of Star Wars and even had representation in the Galactic Senate, meaning that Star Wars is set in the Andromeda Galaxy.
20. ↑ The Cthulhu Mythos, baby. Lovecraft once said that the then newly discovered planet of Pluto could very well be Yuggoth, fictional home of his monsters.
21. ↑ And now you know the real reason (in-universe) for why Pluto isn’t considered a planet. Who said this couldn't be educational?
22. ↑ The Tick (TV series). Ideally the cartoon is the version canon to the FM, but this connection is based on the casting of Patrick Warburton, who played Agent T in Men in Black II, as the Tick in the short-lived live-action version. If I recall correctly, it was implied that the two characters are one and the same!