#dim mak

I honestly can't remember where I first saw one, but I've always been fascinated by Chinese medical statues colloquially known as "bronze men" (dongren, 銅人). They have been used as visual aids for centuries to teach young doctors where important acupuncture points are located on the head, torso, and appendages. They were originally made of bronze (hence the name), but modern models are usually made from fiberglass.

I was thinking about the subject the other day and an idea came to mind: what if a traveling doctor was a bronze man? His tattooed body would be the visual aid. And further more: what if he was a super strong martial artist with a nigh-invulnerable, bronze-like body? This would mean that even experts in pressure point attacks would have problems falling him. (This would be frustrating for them considering that normally vulnerable targets would be visible due to the tattoos: "That's the right spot. Why isn't the attack working?") And further still: what if he was being chased by baddies wanting to learn the secret of his impregnable hide? Perhaps an evil nobleman wants to make an invulnerable army to aid him in usurping the throne. Our hero's pursuers wouldn't be able to hurt him physically, though, so they would play on his sense of empathy by threatening the lives of people around him. But since the story would take place during a time of great political turmoil, the Bronze Man would have to travel the land treating the sick and injured, while also avoiding traps set for him by the nobleman's henchmen. This format thus lends itself to an episodic nature.

The secret of his adamantine skin and strength could be revealed in a series of flashbacks. This might include selective breeding, intense physical and spiritual training and body conditioning from a young age, regular baths in medicinal substances, and perhaps daily (but not perpetual) ingestion of some mystery elixir. (And as I type this, I imagine prolonged longevity might also be a byproduct of the process. This would be a good or bad thing depending on the Bonze Man's mentality.) These flashbacks would also reveal that his tattoos were applied before he attained his final nigh-invulnerable body.

This idea was inspired by tough or even nigh-invulnerable characters from wuxia fiction and kung fu movies. Examples include the eponymous characters from The 18 Bronzemen of Shaolin Temple (少林寺十八銅人; a.k.a. The 18 Bronzemen, 1975) [1] and Bak Mei (白眉) from Hung Man-ding (Hong Wending) Thrice Defeats the White Lotus Clan (洪文定三破白蓮教; a.k.a. Clan of the White Lotus or Fists of the White Lotus, 1980). [2]

Notes:

1) Cantonese: Siu lam chi sap baat tung yan; Mandarin: Shaolin si shiba tongren

I know it’s a joke, it’s a funny one at that, but for the love of Frank Dux, the Dim Mak was right there! The one punch kill has a long and cherish history of frauds! The kumite was a made up event created by Frank Dux alongside a million other lies except that one made blood sport, Mortal Kombat, MMA and Baki happen!

It’s like if someone in a show about baseball was a master of “the art of World Series” and it brings me unlimited suffering

Without further ado, let's bring out

This Week's Crackship:

Party Poison (Danger Days) × Johnny Silverhand (Cyberpunk)

Ship Name(s):

Poison Hand, Dim Mak (see notes below for explanation), Rockerboys, Ronin (see notes below for explanation)

Why It's Crack:

No interactions (separate canons)

Why It's Cracked:

Canons share many similarities. Both are cyberpunk series set in an alternate universe California in the near future (now partially set in the near past, as well), following a war or series of wars that negatively impacted the United States' geopolitical power, costing it territory that would be filled in by an independent city-state (Battery City in Danger Days, and Night City in Cyberpunk) and the resultant power vacuum being filled in by megacorporations (Better Living Industries in Danger Days and Arasaka in Cyberpunk. Like Arasaka, Better Living also seems to be a multinational corporation with at least some notable amount of presence in Japan, hence Better Living having had a .jp domain during the Danger Days album's promotional period, as well as using both English and Japanese writing in much of its content). Crossover potential abounds

Both fill very similar niches in their respective stories (renegade rockers who rebel against corporate overreach with the power of punk rock, and occasionally this gun they found. They both became the exemplar of their respective series' spin on the "rebel with a cause" archetype [Killjoys in Danger Days, and Rockerboys in Cyberpunk])

Both lived and operated in similar timeframes, not taking into account Johnny's engram who stars in Cyberpunk 2077. Party was active in the 2010s up until his death in 2019, and Johnny was active throughout the 2000s up until his death in 2023)

Both are war veterans (Johnny is a confirmed war veteran who deserted the US Military in protest of the government's corruption and purposeful destabilization of Central and South America. Party Poison was likely one of the many Killjoys to take part in the Analog Wars, as implied by the lyrics of The Only Hope For Me Is You)

Both died a similar death, to somewhat similar people, for similar reasons. Both raided the main HQ of their respective antagonistic megacorps in order to rescue an abducted loved one (surrogate little sister "The Girl" in Party's case, and former lover Alt Cunningham in Johnny's case), during which they were brutally gunned down by their corporate foes' bald and sociopathic enforcer (Korse and Adam Smasher, respectively)

Both dye their hair. Party Poison's hair is dyed red (natural color unknown afaik), and Johnny Silverhand dyes his hair black, with it being naturally blond.

Notes

"Dim Mak", also known as "Poison Hand" or "Touch of Death" is a purported system of acupressure-based martial arts said to have originated in ancient China and been culturally imported to Japan. Count Juan Raphael Dante, an eccentric martial arts practitioner who taught karate in the 60s and 70s, also claimed to be able to teach Dim Mak to prospective students, infamously advertising this alleged service in the back page ad spaces in Marvel comic books of the time. This likely was seen at times by Gerard Way, an avid comic fan, as he titled one of the songs in the wider Danger Days multimedia project as Black Dragon Fighting Society, which shares an identical name with the martial arts organization founded by Count Dante. "Dim Mak" is also the name of a record label founded by Steve Aoki, who made a remix of the famous My Chemical Romance song "Welcome to the Black Parade". This fact is also relevant to the ship as Dim Mak distributes punk rock music, with punk rock being the primary genre performed by both Party Poison and Johnny Silverhand.