In the early 70's, Marvel Comics teamed up with The Electric Company kid's television series and released Spidey Super Stories upon the world. It was published well into the early 80's, and just like the tv show, SSS was produced specifically for children, and typically included age apro good / bad moral messaging. The inclusion of various other Marvel characters throughout its popular print run also proved to be a good starting point for young'ins who were now dabbling into the inevitably addictive, allowance annihilatin' world of comic book collecting-- thanks Stan! So okay, we already saw one fun example over at THOIA last week (HERE!), now today as promised, we have a few more featuring two of the silliest villains to ever spring forth from the more madcap side of the 'ol Marvel U! BEHOLD-- the sickly sweet, lovelorn Wallflower, and the hilariously horrible Hum Dinger! The latter, aside from becoming a huge internet meme superstar thanks to one very funny, isolated panel forever taken out of context (see the last panel on page 3 below), The Hum Dinger also made the live action leap (and with better hair) onto the small screen in one rather memorable Electric Company episode. CLICK HERE for it! The Wallflower, unfortunately, didn't quite make the TV syndicated grade, and I suppose maybe she'll have her revenge for that someday as well! NOTE: If someone's up for writing it, we'll post it here! Humbugged is from SSS #24, while Flowers of Evil comes to us via SSS 28.
8 comments:
I wonder if Wallflower is the niece of Lisa Torgan from THOIA's tale The "Devil's Good Deed!" from Feb 28, 2023, since they both use a scent to make them irresistible to men.
Page four middle right panel, it is rare to see Spiderman's eyes shaped like hearts.
The Hum Dinger was a neat tale too.
Both of these baddies could have been turned into edgier villains in Spiderman's regular comic the following ways-
Humdinger's hum could cause people to go crazy or pass out (sort of a male Black Canary), making it easy for him to commit robbery. Wallflower could use her scent to entice millionaires, marry them, then have them walk off a cliff to prove their love.
These were some great comics for the younger crowd, and a clever way to get kids into reading.
Dear Mr. K,
This post is a real hum dinger!
Signed,
Blossom Brain
The Wallflower could certainly take a few fashion / hair tips from The DD herself ;) —mostly though, I think WF’s just using too many Bump-Its!
You have an impeccably good memory, JMR
Oh, I *like* the Wallflower. All she needs to do is consider a change in hairdresser.
Ha! That's great. I don't know how long it's been since I watched one of the Electric Company Spider-Man episodes. It's pretty clever how they're geared toward even younger children than the comics (which I guess makes perfect sense. Kids didn't have to be old enough to read to watch TV). I liked both versions of the story.
I am also disappointed there was no televised version of the Wallflower. It was a pretty neat idea. Love potions are always such an interesting story element. They used to be about wish fulfillment, and now they are about consent. This one attempts to ignore the more adult overtones of the core concept--these daisies are only a "like potions" after all--but that just underlines how forcing people to appreciate you is all about controlling them. Might have been hard to tone this idea down far enough for a broadcast version.
I love the viral panel from story one, and the Heck's Angels panel from story two. (And the splash panel from the live action clip).
Glad everyone enjoyed these-- maybe down the road we'll visit a few more, they certainly are a blast from the past! :)
Over in Marvel proper they had the Mandrill -- a Mandrill looking mutant who put women under his pheromone based control, and that was without the subtext! The wall flower is practically quaint, here!
Thanks, Steve Gerber!
Post a Comment