A Game Most Dangerous, Part 15: Conclusion

Today I'm going to wrap up A Game Most Dangerous by looking back on my scoring method to see how the stories fared. First, let's arrange the 12 scored entries from highest score to lowest score:

1. 57 points: A Game for a Mad Huntress
2. 49 points: Joe Barton
3. 47 points: Gypsy Johnson
4. 45 points: Island of Death
5. 42 points: Billy the Kid
6. 39 points: Isle of the Beast
7. 36 points: The Dreamer
8. 35 points: Lance O'Casey
9. 33 points: Daredevil
10. 32 points: Conan (2nd)
11. 29 points: Conan (1st)
12. 28 points: Jack Armstrong

Of course, this is a grading scale where 100 points = Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game. A low score doesn't mean I thought it was a bad comic - heck, you could argue Jack Armstrong was the most original of the 12 and "A Game for a Mad Huntress" was the most derivative of Connell.

Obviously, however, that 57% score for "A Game for a Mad Huntress" doesn't mean too much as it's set in a completely different part of the world, has a female villain and a ton of supernatural content! It owes a lot to Richard Connell, yet still added a lot of distinctively original material.

The criteria I used to come up with 100 points was based entirely on the original short story; if I had included a way for the elements of the 1932 motion picture to score points then some of these would have reached higher in the ranks - Gypsy Johnson and Lance O'Casey in particular drew from the movie version of the story.

With twelve entries being judged against 25 categories with a possible 4 points each, there were 48 possible points to be awarded in each category. Let's total up all 12 scores and see what kind of data that produces:

The Hunter:

• A Russian nobleman (26/48 points = 54%)
• Who is a big game hunter (40/48 points = 83%)
• But is no longer challenged by big game (37/48 points = 77%)
• So he hunts men on his secluded island (40/48 points = 83%)
• Justifying this through a eugenics/Darwinian philosophy (0/48 points = 0%)
• He is aided by his servants, including a disfigured mute (28/48 points = 58%)
• And his vicious hunting dogs (16/48 points = 33%)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby ships (15/48 points = 31%)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (12/48 points = 25%)
• As a further example of his sense of "sportsmanship", he will deliberately prolong the hunt if he finds it interesting (4/48 points = 8%)
• His victims are placed on display in his trophy room (12/48 points = 25%)

The Hunted:

• A famous big game hunter (10/48 points = 21%)
• Who philosophizes about what (if anything) animals sense while being hunted (4/48 points = 8%)
• He is cast overboard and finds himself on the hunter's island, alone (27/48 points = 56%)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (13/48 points = 27%)
• When he learns the hunter's scheme he refuses to hunt alongside him (0/48 points = 0%)
• Hunted by the hunter, he flees into the wilderness trying to avoid detection (40/48 points = 83%)
• His only tool is a knife which the hunter gave him (11/48 points = 23%)
• In time he constructs traps to kill the hunter or his servants (21/48 points = 44%)
• He survives the ordeal by leaping over a cliff (12/48 points = 25%)
• Although the hunt is over, he confronts the hunter and duels him to the death (20/48 points = 42%)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the Caribbean (30/48 points = 63%)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (24/48 points = 50%)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (11/48 points = 23%)
• And high cliffs (19/48 points = 40%)

I came up with these 25 categories because they are distinctive elements of the original story which help identify imitators as being derivative of Richard Connell. Obviously some of the elements are more likely to appear than others - it is almost certain any of 12 stories will involve a big game hunter hunting men on an island, but the other categories vary in usage.

Two of my categories came up with 0% - the hunter justifying his hunting of men and the hunted person refusing to hunt alongside the hunter. Both of these are crucial to Connell's original story - the hunter's justifications for hunting men, the exposure of his sense of superiority over others is something which disgusts the hero and brings into focus the differences between men and animals. The hero's refusal to hunt side-by-side with the hunter is what makes them enemies and shows that while our hero may have been similar to the hunter, he has undergone character development.

I had a lot of fun going over these stories and I hope you enjoyed it as well. Thanks for reading!