Mr Montibar: Difference between revisions

Kokotomo Island was a thinly-veiled stand-in for the eponymous setting of the 1970s fantasy TV series {{w|Fantasy Land|''Fantasy Island''}}. Indeed, in ''[[Tales To Behold Halloween Cameo Caper 2014 (comic story)|Tales To Behold Halloween Cameo Caper 2014]]'', Montibar nearly refers to his island as “Fantasy Island” before correcting himself and giving its name as Kokotomo Island. As such, Montibar serves as an analogue for Mr Roarke, the host of the series and Chief Magistrate of Fantasy Island. Roarke was played by {{w|Ricardo Montalbán|Ricardo Montalbán}}, whose name “Montibar” vaguely evokes; Montibar shares the canonical Roarke's style of dress, although they look somewhat different. Much like Montibar, Roarke was an eminently mysterious figure, explicitly immortal but otherwise shrouded in ambiguity. For example, despite suggestions that he was to some degree a human being, one episode hinted that Roarke might be [[God (individual)|God]] in a human guise. Montalbán himself believed Roarke to be a fallen [[angel]], for whom overseeing Fantasy Island was a form of purgatory. The controversial [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Island_(film) 2020 prequel feature film], which did not exist yet when the ''Halloween Cameo Caper'' featuring Montibar was created, instead came firmly on the side of Roarke being a human man, who had discovered and harnessed the inherent magic of the Island and was not himself of special significance.

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