Marvel Flipside

Dating Deadpool & Fear Itself

Get it? Because there are hammers involved in Marvel's big summer publishing event? Isn't that ... funny?

MC Hammer was the stage name of Stanley Kirk Burrell, and left his indelible mark on pop culture in the days when old school rap was simply just called rap. Those pants and signature shuffle were most popular with 1990's "U Can't Touch This." That only makes this reference 21 years old!

In case you are a teenager reading comic books, here is the music video the cover artist wants you to remember:

 

Dated, obvious, tired and cliche.

Thus:

Deadjoke-o-meter:

1 out of 5 Deadpools. (If only I can remember what that's supposed to mean.)

 

Dating Fear Itself

Fear Itself #4 (2011) by Matt Fraction, Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger, Laura Martin

Technically, the exact quote is: "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Made famous by the  movie Jaws in 1975, delivered by Chief Brody as played by Roy Scheider. It even made #35 in the American Film Institute's top 100 movie quotes.

 

What makes this quote so memorable is that it is the first time the audience truly "sees" the film's monster, as the Shark rears its head unexpectedly, followed by an intensely slow scene and swelling background score. Perhaps it's appropriate, here, for Iron Man to be using this quote, the first time he sees …  well, I'm not sure what he sees, exactly. The Serpent somehow raises a palace after making the levels of fear around the world hit a threshold, and the sky at some point goes all swirly-green… but if it were right outside Iron Man's window I couldn't tell ya.

Still, a famous movie quote that, while dated, remains in the public consciousness. 

Thus:

Deadjoke-o-meter:

4 out of 5 Deadpools. (If only I can remember what that's supposed to mean.)

 

Dating Moon Knight

It's been a while since we looked at dating comics... specifically, what kinds of pop culture is referenced (usually as "jokes") in a comic and what does that say about its readership/demographic. This week's case study, Moon Knight #2 (2011) by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Matthew Wilson.

And wouldn't you know? The SAME joke is used in Heroes for Hire #8 (2011) in the SAME WEEK by Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning, Brad Walker, & Andrew Hennessy/John Livesay. (Context: Paladin is trying to get Satana's magical help in dispelling some arcane weapons, and the spell required a bit of barely-concealed nudity.)

The reference is to "Hey, I'm walkin' here!" -- a famous line from Dustin Hoffman from Midnight Cowboy (1969). Yes, 1969! This memorable scene has a bit of urban legend around it, in that it is alleged to have been improvised on the spot with a real cab. It's made the AFI's top 50 most memorable movie lines, so despite being over 30 years old, it's often referenced enough that it kind of seems timeless. Thus:

Deadjoke-o-meter:

3 out of 5 Deadpools. (If only I can remember what that's supposed to mean.)

BONUS ART CRITIQUE!

I have to call out Moon Knight for some very poor art. The pacing of the quote in context of the pictures there, unfortunately, seems jarring and disruptive. I can see what the creators were aiming for, but it doesn't "sell," at all.

The bottom panel is obviously meant to be interruptive, since that's the point of the joke, right? But the posing of the characters are so stiff that you would guess it's not the same fight at all, and suddenly the figures are in a different enviorment (colored differently as well). Was the "Hai" balloon supposed to be first? Where did the bodies of the two thugs go anyway? Why is it virtually the same boring straight-shot camera angle? Ugh! Sorry Maleev, this is what they call bad comic book storytelling.

Dating Deadpool - January

Hey! Deadpool made a joke with a pop culture reference that was fewer than 10 years ago!

from Deadpool Team Up #886 (2010) by Shane McCarthy, Nick Dragotta, and Brad Simpson

Hokage being, of course, a title used by the leader and most powerful member of the Konohagakure, one of the five Great Ninja Villages in the world of Naruto.  This famous anime/manga series exploded in popularity for middle schoolers in the U.S. about 2005, to put a date on it, making this one of Deadpool's most current pop culture references to date.

Of course, the comic also "gagged" with the movie Cliffhanger (1993), so maybe that all balances out. 

Deadjoke-o-meter:

5 out of 5 Deadpools. (But I can never remember what that's supposed to mean.)

 

X-Force

Ah, Deadpool. Always good for a dated reference.

Uncanny X-Force #2 (2010) by Rick Remender and Jerome Opeña

"One of these days Alice, straight to the Moon!" favored expression of Ralph Kramden, lead character of The Honeymooners, that ran from 1955 - 1956.

Deadjoke-o-meter:

2 out of 5 Deadpools. (Dated, but so dated that it's almost standard historical pop culture knowledge, as it's inspired countless homages from The Flintsones to Looney Tunes' The Honey-Mousers.)

A-Bomb Doesn't Work

Rick Jones, the A-Bomb from Hulk #26. Written by Jeff Parker with art by Mark Robinson, Terry Pallot & Antonio Febela

Rick Jones, that wacky youngster who grew up to be a perrenial sidekick, is now a monster-fightin' hero of his very own. But what passes for quips in this new hero's witty banter? Dated, dated jokes. 

Connect Four, a popular board game by Milton Bradley, had this memorable ad with a horribly delivered punchine, but is instantly remembered by anyone who grew up during 1981. You know, thirty years ago.

.

Heck, The Onion got some traction with that same bit, in 1999. You know, ten years ago.

Deadjoke-o-meter:

1 out of 5 Deadpools. (Not only is it pretty dated, it's pretty forced, too. Yeesh.)

 

Dating Deadpool - October

from Uncanny X-Force #1 (2010) by Rick Remender, Jerome Opeña, and Dean White

No Doubt:

Ska band formed 1986
First Grammy nominations: 1996
First Grammy won: 2003
Group hiatus: 2004-2008
Return tour: 2009

Deadjoke-o-meter:

3 out of 5 Deadpools. (It looses points for being called a terrible ska band, when they are pretty cool, actually.)

Dating Deadpool Again

Pepsi Challenge -- commercial campaign began 1975, featured in Psychological Reports in 1983, recurring campaign in 2001

Dateline Difference = 9 - 35 years

Dating Deadpool

I did this already with another Deadpool comic, and thought I might give it another go. I'm certainly no demographic or target marketing genius, but I enjoy trying to see things from that perspective, including reading comics with an eye for "new reader friendly"-ness and "young reader friendly"-ness. Considering a young male age 16 for a ballpark number, but also considering the fact that anything he may have encountered younger than middle school is effectively a wash, what exactly is the appropriate date range for pop culture/current event awareness to make humorous references effective? Or, asked another way, what if you threw a joke and nobody came? 

This time from Deadpool Team-Up #890, by James Asmus, Micah Gunnell, Rob Stull, and John Rauch

Richard Gere urban legend, circa 1985
aged = 25 years

Great Recession, 2007
aged = 3 years

John McClane in Die Hard, 1988
aged = 22 years

The Facts of Life TV sitcom, 1979
aged = 31 years

Hamster Dance internet meme, 1999
aged = 11 years

Dating New Avengers

In New Avengers #3, there is this page, featuring banter between the New Avengers and the Thing regarding a certain movie:

New Avengers #3, by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen,
Wade von Grawbadger, and Laura Martin.

I certainly count this fine example of cinema very high among my all-time faves list. But I also am acutely aware that it's, let's face it, an OLD movie. Ghostbusters was released in 1984, which makes it more or less 25 years old.

This is funny for a couple of reasons. First of all, with the "rolling timeline" of the Marvel universe, in which the rise of superheroes is never more than 13 to 15 years ago, the film Ghostbusters would have been out for nearly 10 years before the first superheroes (the Fantastic Four) appeared in the Marvel-public's eye. So the Thing would have seen the movie as Ben Grimm, a somewhat young teenager at the time, and ten years later have become the heroic monster we all know and love.

The second thing is to consider the target audience of comic books, which would primarily be young males age 14-17, which again, places the reference nearly 10 years out of their reach. Much is made in the Avengers comic itself about this very fact, of course, because if the young readers are like Ms. Marvel, who says she's never seen it, they will meet with the Thing's incredulity and remark that it's ubiquitously on cable.  

Of course, there's always YouTube as well.