Comedian books, on the finish of the day, are a product attempting to get bought. There wouldn’t be a comic book e-book trade if followers didn’t buy them, in any case, however whereas these tales inform of upstanding heroes and unshakable souls, the businesses that fund them are out to advertise, promote, promote. Advertisements are what hold comics on the cabinets, in any case, however there’s at all times one step additional than common adverts, and that’s precisely what Marvel and Eagle Snacks gave us again in 1996 with the creation of the unstoppable Combo Man. He was, after all, named for the CombosTM Baked Snacks, and his powers have been primarily based on that idea.
Combo Man has made a grand whole of two appearances, together with his most up-to-date in Ziggy Pig-Foolish Seal Comics (2019) #1 being a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo. His debut in Combo Man was the final word collaboration between Marvel and Eagle Snacks, and never solely did he have an origin that’s as wild as you’ll be able to think about from this sort of product placement, however he grew to become certainly one of Marvel’s strongest heroes of all and averted a world-ending catastrophe. When you’re on the lookout for the kind of advert we’re speaking about, it’s about ten instances crazier than this Obtained Milk advert from 2000.
Maybe fittingly, Combo Man truly appeared a number of months earlier than his debut comedian in a collection of promotional adverts. Children might win Combo Man merchandise by appropriately guessing the fourteen heroes and villains who made up his totally different elements. The vast majority of these costume bits have been straightforward, however there have been some genuinely difficult additions meant to journey up all however probably the most devoted of Marvel followers. The fourteen characters in query have been, in top-down order: Hulk, Cyclops, Iron Man, Magneto, Punisher, Captain America, Sabertooth, Carnage, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Century, Human Torch, Silver Surfer, and Gambit.
Now, Cyclops’s visor and Captain America’s star are easy sufficient to acknowledge, however the folks working this contest actually needed to maintain followers on their toes with this. Utilizing Sabertooth as a substitute of Wolverine, particularly when each had yellow and brown fits, was undoubtedly meant to journey folks up. Gambit’s boots aren’t precisely iconic, both, and Daredevil had simply modified his costume, so hardly anybody had gotten used to his new look. After all, the most important secret in plain sight was Century. He’s undoubtedly obscure by in the present day’s requirements, and he can’t have been significantly better recognized in 1996, however he was new. He’d debuted only a yr earlier in Power Works #1, which was shaped to make up for the West Coast Avengers disbanding. Both means, the general public was prepped for Combo Man’s debut, which lastly arrived in January of 1996.
Combos Are Better Than the Sum of Their Elements
Rick Wilder was a bullied pupil who, to get in his tormentors’ good graces, was peer-pressured into breaking into their faculty’s lab to steal midterm solutions. He snuck in with nothing however his backpack filled with Marvel comics and a Combos habit. Severely, he was in the course of a heist and cracked a pack of Combos. Sadly for everybody, he stumbled onto AIM Troopers pressuring his professor into handing over a tool meant to increase human potential. Rick made a distraction for his instructor to flee, however that made the soldier chase him when he stumbled into the room with the professor’s ray, which promptly exploded in a burst of sunshine.
Naturally, after escaping an enormous explosion and nearly being shot, Rick’s first thought was to eat extra Combos, after which he emerged from the smoke, remodeled into Combo Man. With newfound powers that mimicked these of each hero who made up his design, he simply dispatched the AIM goons, solely to be met with the Tremendous-Adaptoid. Rick knew simply how highly effective he was, however was additionally conscious that if the Tremendous-Adaptoid mimicked his powers, then it could grow to be virtually unstoppable. In any case, he had Magneto’s magnetism, Spider-Man’s precog, Daredevil’s senses, Sabertooth’s therapeutic, Century’s teleportation, and the Energy Cosmic, on high of all the things else. Including the Energy Cosmic to any of those characters can be completely bonkers, however giving it to somebody with Magneto’s energy set would possibly as properly be a common risk.
Simply then, Rick turned again to regular. He realized that consuming Combos triggered his transformation, so he popped some extra and have become Combo Man as soon as once more. He managed to defeat the Tremendous-Adaptiod earlier than it might mimic his skills, which means that he saved the Marvel Universe from a completely endgame-level risk. With that, he flew off, assured that peer stress was one thing he’d by no means fall for once more. Though that is an anti-peer stress narrative, it was the peer stress that geared him in the direction of getting powers within the first place, which is greater than a bit ironic.
This story, clearly, is insane. Rick is a Combos-addicted child who stumbles into godhood, after which these powers instantly grow to be a risk when the Tremendous-Adaptoid almost copies them. There’s an odd pattern of deep-baked irony to the truth that bullying is each spoken in opposition to and rewarded, and Combos empower Rick to avoid wasting the day, however the greatest risk stems from that energy itself. That’s not even entering into the fantastically ’90s dialogue that triggered me at the least somewhat little bit of ache. Screaming “Oh Cheese!” when one thing goes mistaken is a unbelievable concept to undertake.
On the finish of the day, this can be a hilarious piece of Marvel historical past. Is it a great comedian? Not by any stretch of the creativeness. Is it enjoyable, dumb, and all the things product placement ought to attempt to be? Completely. Combo Man is the literal byproduct of an age that has handed, but when Marvel someday determined to return to letting firms make their very own overpowered authentic character, it wouldn’t be good, however it could be hilarious sufficient for me to be all the way down to learn it, with out query.
Which Marvel advert marketing campaign do you bear in mind most fondly? Tell us within the feedback beneath, and bear in mind, children, should you ever get caught in an explosion, make sure to hold your Combos available!