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Girl Genius

This article is about the Castle prisoner with a spider clank replacing his lower body. For other professors, see Professor (disambiguation).


"Useless inferior coprolitic components. I wouldn't electrocute my mother with these."[1]

Spider-minion-sqr

Professor Caractacus Mezzasalma[2] is introduced to the narrative as a Castle Heterodyne prisoner. It has not been revealed what specifically he did to get himself sentenced to Castle duty.

Strength of the Spider[]

Mezzasalma has thick short black hair and dark olive skin, and wears a blue vest. He appears to be a minor spark specializing in both electromechanical systems and arachnids, leading to the spider-like (though hexapodal) legs that serve as his lower body. He has been seen to use at least one leg to hold a cable , suggesting that all six may be functional manipulative limbs. His first name is never mentioned in the comic, and is supplied by the novel Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle.

As much as a Spark of his sort can be, he is friends with his fellow prisoners Doctor Mittlemind and Professor Diaz, even though at some point in the past Diaz stole Mezzasalma's favorite pancreas. He is a member of Diaz's castle-killer team, and is present when Agatha captures Zola, at which point he along with everybody else immediately transfers his allegiances .

Of course, that doesn't mean he really wants to accompany Agatha down into the Great Movement Chamber, but all good excuses get used up , and he feels that crying is undignified. And so, he ends up in charge of the setup powering the Si Vales Valeo System Transferal Procedure, whence the above quote.

He more enthusiastically takes part in refurbishing the Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispenser and thus is present when Zola kills Diaz with the marshmallow gun, and has his legs shorted out by an effect of Mittelmind's pulse cannon.

He recovers from this (even got that pancreas back! ), ultimately survives Agatha's visit to the Castle, and is among the prisoners who are released when the Doom Bell is rung and Agatha officially declared the Heterodyne. He comments to Sanaa that he's not sure what he now wants to do, as he never really expected to escape the Castle alive.

Before the Timeskip seals Mechanicsburg, he is last seen working on Moloch's team of roving repairmen in the Red Cathedral, expressing enthusiasm for Tarvek's leadership potential, and watching the Castle get a needed spark.

At some point prior to his incarceration, he had mecha-narwhal creator Iskenshod as a student.

Novels[]

Apart from the aforementioned name reveal, the novel version of the professor is very similar to what we see in the comic. It is noted that Sanaa at least considers him to be among the more relatively stable and helpful of the Castle prisoners.

Outside Information[]

"Mezza" means "half" and "salma" means "body" or "corpse" in Italian.[3][4]

"Caractacus" is likely a reference to Caractacus Potts; a (non-GG) fictional mad inventor known for his creation of the famous flying car "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang".

See Also[]

References

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