Mikado (comics) pattern, and the Question tracked him down. Their conversation touched Dr. Spaulding deeply, and he injected himself with a poison intended for the Question. By the time the Question had recovered from the Mikado's opiate injection, the Mikado had disappeared completely. He has not appeared since then. The Mikado's name was taken from that of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera of the same name, and his chant is a line of a song sung by The Mikado, the Emperor of Japan, in Act II. The name of his alter ego was taken from the Groucho Marx character, Captain Spaulding. Marx
The Mikado the English National Opera's usual Ko-Ko. In Isaac Asimov's short story, "Runaround", a robot recites some of the song. Other songs in "The Mikado" have been referenced in films, television and other media. For example, the movie poster for "The Little Shop of Horrors", shown to the left, parodies the song title, "The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring, Tra la!" changing the word "bloom" to "kill". In "The Producers", an auditioner for the musical "Springtime for Hitler" begins his audition with Nanki-Poo's song, "A wand'ring minstrel I." He is quickly dismissed. In the 2006 film "Brick", femme fatale Laura