Childhood Memories: A Few Marios More

So last time, we looked at the classic late 80s gem known as "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show". It had it all, Captain Lou Albano, Mario and the gang, witty humor, live segments with special guest stars, stories that spoofed popular media, and even special Friday "The Legend of Zelda" episodes. Sadly, that greatness only lasted for one season, or more accurately 65 episodes. It was re-played on various networks for years, so it got plenty of exposure, and it was good enough that many people still remember it fondly today. That wasn't the end of animated Mario on American network television, however. He saw a continued life in the form of two further cartoon series, the first of which as you can see above, was called "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3".

Still produced by DiC Entertainment, it was originally blocked together with another Nintendo inspired show called "Captain N: The Game Master", which I won't get into here, as it certainly deserves it's own article. This new show had no live action segments, so instead in it's original form, the format would see a Captain N episode book-ended by two Super Mario Bros. 3 episodes. Part of the reason there were no longer live action Mario Bros. segments, is because for whatever reasons, Captain Lou and Danny Wells were no longer playing Mario and Luigi. Those parts were now played by Walker Boone (who had a much gruffer voice than Albano) and Tony Rosato (who managed to sound closer to his predecessor). As a matter of fact the only voice actors to carry over from the Super Show, were John Stocker as Toad and Harvey Atkin as King Bowser Koopa. The show was still largely animated by the same people, so the characters kept the same basic look, with only slight changes. Similar to the Super Show, the cartoon also extensively used sound effects directly from the Super Mario Bros. 3 game, and even variations on it's music. The catchy rap intro from the Super Show was gone, replaced by a narration over the "Doom Ship" level theme from the game, and each episode had a nice little title screen accompanied by a map from one of the game's worlds, complete with that world's theme song.

The Gang's All Here!

Now, storywise, in comparison to the Super Show, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was slightly more cohesive, in the sense that while in the first show each episode took place in a different, made up world, in this show, most episodes took place in the "Mushroom World", as represented by Super Mario Bros. 3 itself. Fitting with SMB3, as you can see in the picture above, Bowser once again tries to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, this time bringing along his 7 kids, the "Koopalings". In an odd twist, as it would turn out though, this show went into production before Super Mario Bros. 3 had come out in America, so the creators didn't have names for the Koopalings, and had to make up their own. As such, their names for the show were as follows: Larry was "Cheatsy", Morton was "Big Mouth", Wendy was "Kootie Pie", Iggy was "Hip", Lemmy was "Hop", Roy was "Bully", and Ludvig von Koopa was "Kooky". They stuck with this because why not, I guess, even after the game came out, so I'm sure there was certainly confusion from fans. As most Mario fans know, Nintendo of America named the Koopalings based on various musicians and entertainment personalities. The names DiC came up with, were decidedly.....less creative. But alas.

What's weirder, seeing Milli Vanilli in a cartoon, or seeing Wendy O. Koopa in a miniskirt?

Now like I said, most of the stories in this Mario 3 based cartoon took place in Mushroom World, and fitting that, there are episodes where they travel to Desert Land, Giant Land, Ice Land, etc. Each episode naturally features some kind of scheme by Bowser and his brats that the Mario Brothers have to find a way to thwart. Like the previous show, the Marios would often do this with the aid of power ups straight out of the games, and in this case that most often took the form of the Raccoon Leaf, which would transform them into Raccoon Mario and Luigi, though on the odd occasion they would also bust out the Frog Suit. Not all of the stories take place in the Mushroom World though, in fact several of them actually take place in our "real world", with Bowser and Co. trying to expand their horizons by conquering Earth instead. One episode, entitled "Reptiles in the Rose Garden" sees Bowser teleport the White House, complete with then still President Bush and his wife, to Dark Land as a present for Wendy (I mean Kootie Pie). In another such episode, called "Seven Continents for Seven Koopas" (a rip on the cheesy old musical "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"), Bowser sends each of his kids to go and conquer one of the seven major continents of the planet. And I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the episode seen above, called "Kootie Pie Rocks", where the pop group Milli Vanilli are kidnapped by Bowser to play an exclusive concert for Kootie Pie. In a funny note, this episode originally featured actual songs by the group, but after their famous lip-syncing fiasco occurred, further re-runs of that episode (and even the DVD release), replaced their songs with generic music. But hey, you still have the absolute weirdness of Milli Vanilli in a Mario cartoon, so what are you gonna do?

Ah yes, Mario, Luigi, Princess, Yoshi, and.....WHO the fuck is that caveman?

Similar to the Super Show, "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3" only lasted one season, in this case meaning 26 11 minute episodes, originally packaged with Captain N and then later as it's own separate show. Almost exactly a year later, this show would be replaced by a new packaging with brand new episodes of Captain N, simply entitled "Super Mario World". This show came out in September of 1991, almost a month after the game itself had debuted with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the states. Like that game (actually titled Super Mario Bros. 4 for anyone nerdy enough to care), this new show saw the plumbers hanging out in Dinosaur Land, as Bowser and his kids had migrated there to take over, apparently tired of failing to capture the Mushroom Kingdom. The show still featured Mario, Luigi and the Princess, still voiced by their Mario 3 cartoon actors, along with naturally Yoshi, popular character from the game. But in an incredibly odd decision by the production team, they decided to inhabit dinosaur island with human cave people, completely made up and not in any way featured in Super Mario World the game, of course. And with this decision, they also made the real head-scratcher to completely omit the character of Toad. Even as a kid this made zero sense to me, seeing as this heroic foursome had been established ever since the Super Show in '89, and now they decide to drop Toad, even though people are used to him and like him? But the craziest thing about the whole mess, is that John Stocker was still kept in the cast, now voicing a completely made-up cave person called "Oogtar". Because apparently, some genius at DiC thought that some caveman character with a retarded name would be better than Toad. Naturally.

To be honest, I'm speaking from bias here, as even as a kid in 1991, I never really cared much for the Super Mario World cartoon. The cavemen, Oogtar, no Toad, the storylines in general......it wasn't BAD, but it just didn't do it for me. Hell, the adjacent new episodes of Captain N weren't even anywhere near as good. And who knows, maybe that's why the show only lasted 13 episodes? It DID have a semi-catchy wannabe reggae sounding theme song. And it DID have Yoshi. For dumb continuity's sake they even maintained the same silly names for the Koopalings. But overall, I dunno, it just kind of felt to me like the whole animated Mario run went out with a bit of a whimper instead of a bang, because of this show. They eventually repackaged reruns of it in a new format show called, coinciding with the release of that game, "Super Mario All Stars". Though in another odd decision, they chose to omit Mario 3 episodes from that show, only showing Super Show and Mario World episodes instead (even though animation from the Mario 3 show was shown in the opening).

"What do you MEAN we're getting cancelled?"

All in all, my feelings about the Mario cartoons has shifted as I've gotten older. As a kid, I absolutely loved the Super Show, don't get me wrong, it was great. I even still have some VHS tapes of it (that I keep in spite of owning the whole show on DVD). But back in the early 90s, Super Mario Bros. 3 was my man-crush of a game, it was my childhood sweetheart, and to be fair it STILL is my fav. game of all time (even though it seems a hell of a lot harder to me now than it did then). So back then, I absolutely adored the Mario 3 cartoon as well, because I mean LOOK at it, it had Raccoon powers, and map screens from the game, and actual Mushroom World locations, etc. etc. But looking back on it all NOW, I honestly like the Super Show a lot better. Make no mistake, the Mario 3 cartoon is still cool. But really, the Super Show honestly did "have it all" as a show, Captain Lou and Danny Wells were the perfect Mario and Luigi, the humor and writing just seemed in general better. I guess I just came to appreciate it more as I've gotten older, and as you age, your reasons for liking things sometimes change. But all in all, I'm glad these Mario cartoons were part of my childhood, and trust me, they were a BIG part. Some of my favorite shows ever, and always a highlight whenever I could see them.

Good stuff all around, and again, if you've never seen them, I suggest checking them all out. I'd recommend the Super Show if you can only check out just one. But really, Mario 3 and even the Mario World cartoon are worth your time, so make some time.......and remember, "Do the Mario!"

Childhood Memories: Do The Mario!

Hey, Paisanos!

Back in the 80s, during my early childhood, there were certainly a lot of cartoons that I loved. Inspector Gadget, The Smurfs, He-Man, Thundercats, Silverhawks, Garfield & Friends, Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats, The Carebears, etc. Not to mention all the classic cartoons from Disney, MGM, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, etc. that they used to play regularly on TV. It's safe to say I've always loved animation, pretty much all my life. As far back as three or four years old, I've also had an avid love of video games. In fact the two earliest games I can remember seeing or "playing" were Pac-Man and Dig Dug in the arcade. As it turns out, one of the earliest cartoons that I remember watching, was an early 80s Pac-Man cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera, something I'll surely give it's own blog at a future date. Given those two great childhood loves, it wasn't until I discovered the Nintendo Entertainment System (a bit later than most kids), and first saw Super Mario Bros. being played, that I went from love to childhood obsession. Super Mario Bros., and later especially Super Mario Bros. 3, really kicked off arguably my most passionate (of many) childhood interests. And so when I discovered there was a Super Mario Bros. based cartoon? It was automatically my new favorite cartoon of the time.

The Bros., hangin' with Sgt. Slaughter.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show first debuted on Monday, September 4th, 1989. It was developed and produced by animation company DiC, who were also responsible for other great 80s cartoons such as Heathcliff, Inspector Gadget, and The Real Ghostbusters. The show consisted of two segments. The first was a live action segment where the voices of Mario and Luigi, played by former professional wrestler and famous wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano and actor Danny Wells, also portrayed the characters in front of the camera, in comedic skits usually involving some kind of celebrity guest. These guests were typically people famous at the time, such as child actor Brian Bonsall of Family Ties fame, Wheel of Fortune personality Vanna White, Los Angeles Laker Magic Johnson, disc jockey and voice actor Gary Owens, and even some of Captain Lou's old wrestling contemporaries Sgt. Slaughter and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. These live action skits would bookend the show, opening it with the setup that would end in a cliffhanger, and then once the cartoon episode for the day had concluded, the live action skit would come back and wrap up the show. The nice thing about these skits, was the chemistry between Albano and Wells, who you could tell genuinely got along, and really put themselves in the roles. Albano would reveal in interviews years later that he and Wells were never given a full script for these scenes, but rather a general outline of what was going to happen, and then the two of them would generally just ad lib their lines, in front of a live studio audience no less. Given that fact, it makes you appreciate these purposefully-silly segments even more, as much of the ad-libbed material Albano and Wells came up with was genuinely funny and entertaining.

"Mario, we ain't in Brooklyn anymore!"

As for the cartoon itself, for a young Mario fan, it honestly couldn't have been much better. Having just released in North America in October of 1988, Super Mario Bros. 2 was still very fresh on kids' minds, and as such, it served in some ways as the biggest influence on the show. The main protagonists of the show were of course Mario and Luigi, voiced by Albano and Wells, but they were also joined, in SMB2 fashion, by Princess Toadstool and Toad, voiced by Jeanie Elias and John Stocker. The primary villain, naturally was King Bowser Koopa, voiced by Harvey Atkin, but given the influence of SMB2, he often employed enemies and bosses from that game as his lackeys, such as Mouser, Tri-Clyde, Fry Guy, Clawgrip, Shy Guys, Sniffits, Cobrats, Beezos, Flurries, Albatoss' and Bob-Ombs, etc. In fact the only enemies from SMB2 never present in the cartoon, were Hawkmouth and the game's final boss Wart. The show also utilized concepts from SMB2, such as Bowser using magic potion bottles to create doorways and escape, or the Mario Bros. picking up and hurling objects such as vegetables and blocks at enemies. The show's producers even went so far as to use mainly sound effects directly from SMB2, such as the throwing, hitting, jumping etc. for effects in the cartoon itself. However, with all of this influence from the second game, there was still plenty of influence from the original Super Mario Bros. as well, such as the heroes frequently encountering and using Fire Flowers, jumping and breaking blocks, as well as Bowser's more traditional minions being frequently mixed in with the Mario 2 baddies, such as Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and even the occasional appearance of Bloopers, Lakitu and his Spinies.

"Koopa Pack, Attack!"

The general basis of the cartoon was the same as the games, seeing Mario and his companions fight against Bowser and his forces, who are trying to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. But in a twist on that theme, and most likely to give the writers more room to work and create variety, in the show Mario and his pals travel to different made up lands, which Bowser is inevitably also trying to conquer, where the heroes then have to thwart Bowser's evil (and often hilarious) schemes and save the day. Each episode basically had some kind of theme, and often the episodes would be homages or parodies of popular movies or fiction. For example, there were episodes based on Dracula and Frankenstein, James Bond, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Hercules, Indiana Jones, Mad Max, King Arthur, Robin Hood, Jack & the Beanstalk, Sherlock Holmes, and even Godzilla (naturally one of my favorite episodes). As seen in the picture above, Bowser and Co. would often adopt outfits or personalities fitting the theme of the episode (and concurrent land they're trying to conquer), with Bowser himself adopting various guises and nicknames, such as Koopenstein, Count Koopula, Koopa Claus, Koop-zilla, and even Robo-Koopa (a parody of Robocop). Inevitably, the heroes would defeat Koopa, which would usually send him slinking off to the next episode, often with the classic line "He who Koops and runs away, lives to Koop another day!"

"Does anybody have some spare ravioli?"

Now, one thing I should point out, for those of you who may have never seen these old cartoons, is the portrayal of Mario and Luigi themselves. As established in the show, Mario and Luigi (probably taking some cues from the series prequel of sorts, simply titled Mario Bros.), are natives of Brooklyn, New York, in the real world Earth. They were plumbers who accidentally found themselves sucked down a drain and wound up in the magical Mushroom Kingdom (which is also consistent with the NA booklet for SMB1). Because they're established as being from Brooklyn, they have heavy Brooklyn accents, and this is how I grew up with Mario and Luigi, a couple of tough New Yorkers. They were even (more or less) depicted this way in the infamous (and I argue still highly entertaining for what it was) Super Mario Bros. movie. Now somewhere along the line, when Nintendo decided to give Mario a bit of voice for Super Mario 64, they hired talented voice actor Charles Martinet, who in his audition, instead of going for the gruff NY accent, decided Mario should have a more stereotypical Italian accent. As history would have it, the NA Nintendo reps loved it, and that is how Mario has sounded ever since. Now mind you, I don't MIND the way Mario sounds now, it's grown on me over time, and I've accepted that that is how Mario is seen by most folks today. BUT, the Mario I grew up with was a pint-sized tough guy plumber from the mean streets of Brooklyn, voiced by Captain Lou Albano (and later by Walker Boone, but more on that later), and that's how I'll always prefer it.

"By the power of Grayskull....."

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention one other element to this show, that pretty much put something that was already perfect, over the top. In it's original 1989 run, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was broadcast in syndication every weekday. For the Monday through Thursday episodes, the show featured a Mario cartoon. But on Fridays, it would feature a special "The Legend of Zelda" cartoon, which would still be book-ended by live Mario Bros. Plumbing segments. During the M-Th episodes, right before finally wrapping up whatever zany situation was occurring in the live skit, they would have one of the characters say something along the lines of "While we find out what happened to Mario's pajamas, watch these scenes from the next Legend of Zelda!" (I don't think they ever actually said that one, but it's still funny). The Zelda cartoon itself, was very true to the games it was based on (with Zelda 2 also having just released the year prior in 1988 in NA), utilizing music and sound effects from the show, as well as having Gannon as the primary villain, with appearances by just about every enemy from the first two Zelda games at some point. The show still had a goofy tone, of course, but it was good entertainment. Though people who are aware of it today, are likely most aware of Link's catch-phrase from the show, where every time Zelda would get pissed at him for something, or crack a joke at his expense, he would exclaim "Well excuuuuuuuuse ME, princess!" (a line, by the way, I still use on my friends from time to time). While goofy or funny in tone, these episodes still managed to also retain a nice sense of epic fantasy adventure that really fit the games, and it was cool to have basically Nintendo's two biggest franchises represented in one show.

"Well Excuuuuuuuuse ME!"

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show's original run lasted from September '89 through December 1st '89, with 65 total episodes (52 Mario, 13 Zelda). To be completely honest, I'm not sure whether or not I actually caught the show when it originally aired, because it was continued in reruns until September 1991. And even beyond that, it was picked up that same month (and year) by The Family Channel, and would continue to air in some form until 1994. Regardless, it was one of my fav. cartoons of the time, and remains one of my favorite animated shows of all time. It's naturally great material for kids, but it also had really clever writing, and can easily be great entertainment for us "big kids" as well. One disappointing element of the show that was dropped upon later re-airings and in the DVD releases, is that originally, every Super Mario Bros. cartoon episode would feature actual hit songs from various eras of music, at some point in the episode to accompany the action. Some of these songs would include "Great Balls of Fire", "La Bamba", "Workin For a Livin'", "Kung Fu Fighting", and even Michael Jackson's "Beat It". But as I said, in later airings and for DVD releases, these songs were removed and replaced with stock music from the show, most likely due to royalty issues. Granted, it's more important that the show made great use of versions of actual music from the SMB1 and SMB2 games, but it was still just another cool little feature that the cartoons used real songs too.

So that about does it for one of my best childhood memories, when it comes to shows that I loved. The entire Mario episodes can be found on DVD, and the Zelda episodes are also available on their own separate DVD. Though sadly, while all 52 Mario cartoons are there, for some stupid reason not all of the live skits were included (though most are). It's a show I still think fondly of, and still get a big smile on my face when I pop in one of the DVDs from time to time. Quite frankly, it's an overused saying, but it's really true that they "just don't make shows like this anymore", because they don't. It was truly a one of a kind show, and it's really too bad that it's run only lasted one season, because more certainly would have been welcome. That doesn't mean that it didn't "live on" in a way, though, as it lasted in re-runs until 1994, but also because it would be followed up by a "successor" cartoon that at the time I loved just as much, which will be the focus of my next entry. So stay tuned cats and kittens, as there is more animated Mario goodness just around the corner!


Till then, I'll leave you with the most fitting way to end this particular topic that there is. Enjoy!

Classic Comics: Beware the Creeper

Showcase #73, first appearance of The Creeper.

"The world has more than it's share of troublemakers, tormentors and terrorists! And perhaps not enough forces of courage, strength and justice to combat them. But now -- a new force against evil is about to make it's presence felt. A unique power, embodied in a remarkable character, and dedicated to the defeat of the destroyers. A man accidentally thrust into a dynamic destiny...and who accepts the explosive challenge. For it is he who will defy those destroyers, and make them Beware the Creeper!!!"


That quote is the first thing you read in Showcase #73, "The Coming of the Creeper". It's so awesome, I just felt that I had to add it. The Creeper was one of several properties that were created at DC Comics in the late 1960s by one Steve Ditko. Ditko is one of the most well known comic book artists of all time, along with the likes of Jack Kirby and Bob Kane, among so many others. Ditko had already made a name for himself by the late 60s, first with the Charlton Comics character Captain Atom (he would later also create The Question for Charlton, both of whom would become DC characters), and later more famously as the co-creator (visual designer) of both Spider-Man and Doctor Strange for Marvel Comics. He left Marvel after a period of great success, and went to rival DC where along with The Creeper, he also created or co-created the likes of Shade the Changing Man and Hawk and Dove.


Story-wise, the Creeper wasn't all that different from many other hero characters of the time. But character-wise, he most certainly was unique. WHAM-TV show host and personality Jack Ryder, who in his first Showcase #73 appearance would offend a guest and be fired from that job, only to be hired by the studio as a kind of security investigator, wound up following an assignment to his strange fate. Getting mixed up with mob boss Angel Devilin and his thugs, he discovers the missing Dr. Vincent Yatz at a faux high society party, which is really cover for the mob to sell Dr. Yatz and his secrets back to very interested communist parties. It seems Dr. Yatz has invented such things as an "instant healing formula", as well as a "matter displacement device", things those evil communists would love to use as weapons. To sneak into the party, a costume party, Jack had to don some sort of costume for disguise, and as luck would have it, all the costume shop he stopped at had available, was one box of leftover junk. So he just threw together one of the weirdest outfits of all time out of what was there, and voila, you have the basic look of the Creeper, though it's all makeup and even a green-haired wig (as seen in the cover art above). Upon successfully sneaking into the party, however, he winds up getting himself near-fatally stabbed, and thrown into the same secret room as Dr. Yatz. Both to save Jack's life, as well as to keep his secrets out of evil hands, Dr. Yatz injects him with the fast healing formula, and sticks the small matter displacement dohickey in the wound while he's at it. The good doc gets himself shot dead for his trouble, but his legacy now lives on in the form of Jack Ryder, who would soon take on the monicker "The Creeper".

The Creeper, in his own solo-title.

That legacy turned out to be the unwitting creation of DC's newest, strangest super-hero. The healing serum seemed to give Jack permanent fast-healing ability, a power none-too-common in comics at this juncture (not to mention many years preceding the more famous Marvel character Wolverine), not to mention exponentially increasing his natural strength, stamina, agility, reflexes, and so on. The other side-effect of the good doctor's work, is that via a tiny transmitter device he would keep attached to his wrist-watch, Jack could now use the matter displacement thingy grafted into his body, to automatically switch to his Creeper form. Whereas he had originally donned random bits of costume, accompanied by a green wig and yellow makeup, these things were now permanent so long as the device was activated, meaning baddies couldn't just pull his wig off, etc. When he hit the switch, he WAS The Creeper, and he could turn back into Jack Ryder just as fast, which added another unique-for-it's-time element to the character. The final piece to the puzzle, was a conscious choice on Jack's part to start laughing maniacally and acting as "creepy" and otherworldly as possible when fighting criminals, using the element of fear to his advantage in a similar, and yet far different way to Batman. This aura of fear, combined with his "inhuman" physical abilities and fast healing, made most thugs he faced doubt that The Creeper even WAS human, but perhaps rather a ghost or something altogether different.

This served Mr. Ryder well, as he was able to mop up Angel Devilin and his gang. But in so doing, he also found himself on the wrong side of the law, as in initially escaping from the mansion where Dr. Yatz had been held, he unknowingly attacks a police officer, as he had just been fighting his way through thugs. So while he was a hero for beating the bad guys and saving the day, he was from the get-go also established a "wanted man", both by the city's criminal underground ($100,000 for his head, to be precise), as well as the police. His initial appearance in Showcase was well enough received to lead into the character getting his own solo-title, "Beware the Creeper", plotted by Steve Ditko, but also written (as his first DC assignment), by one Dennis O'Neil. Denny O'Neil would later become famous for his work on the Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic, as well as his now-classic Batman work (creating such memorable villains as Man-Bat and Ra's Al Ghul, among others).

The introduction of his most dangerous villain, Proteus.

In the first issue of "Beware the Creeper", Ryder would face off against a new threat, both to himself as well as the mob, a seeming vigilante calling himself "The Terror". He faced and defeated this threat, in what would present itself in a very detective fashioned story of "whodunnit", with Ryder trying to determine who out of several likely candidates is in fact the masked "Terror". By issue #2, readers would be introduced to his biggest and most enduring villain, a mystery man who can disguise himself as anyone he chooses (so it would seem), known only as Proteus. It seems that this mysterious Proteus turned up at some point in the recent past, and had strong-armed his way into control of the local mobs. In his very first appearance, Proteus takes the form of The Creeper, attacking the WHAM-TV production room, setting off an explosive that kills one of the crew, framing The Creeper for murder in the eyes of the public in the process. The primary focus of Jack's activities over the remaining issues (what few they were) of his first title's run, was trying to discover just who Proteus really is, as well as bringing him and the criminal underground down for good.

The final confrontation?

Sadly, "Beware the Creeper" would enjoy a run of only 6 issues. I would imagine that the sales were just not up to snuff, which very sadly has happened to a lot of great comic titles over the years (same with tv shows, etc). In the last article, about The Doom Patrol, I had to "spoil" the end of that team and their comic, for one thing because (to comic fans at least), their fate was already pretty well known, and for another, it was just something when dealing with that team and that title, that had to be discussed. However, when it comes to The Creeper, or at least his original six issue "Beware the Creeper" run (seven if you count Showcase #73), I don't really want to spoil the fun, so if you want to know the scoop on this Proteus guy, and juicy stuff like that, I'd highly encourage you to find yourself these comics and read them, as they're well worth it despite their number.

The Creeper would thankfully not be done after his title was cancelled though. In fact throughout the 70s and 80s he would go on to make numerous appearances in various titles, including The Justice League of America, Detective Comics (Batman), and many others. Some loose ends of his own title would be somewhat further explored in an "Super-Team Family" issue #2. He would, however, go on to be nothing more than a cameo type of character until the 90s, when he would eventually get his own comic for a time again. Though after the infamous mid-80s "Crisis on Infinite Earths" storyline, he was one of many characters to have their origins retconned (or in his case slightly tweaked), adding some rather silly elements to what was already a perfectly fine character. Overall, though his own comic was very short-lived, and his appearances over the years have been sporadic, he is one of many DC "second stringer" type characters that I have really come to love and appreciate in recent years.

He actually even enjoyed some minor appearances in both "The New Batman Adventures" in the 90s, as well as the early 2000s "Justice League Unlimited". His episode of Batman, entitled "Beware the Creeper", despite featuring a completely wrong origin for his powers (you'll have to watch to understand), is still a rather entertaining episode. His limited appearances in JLU, while cool, are actually just non-speaking background parts, but it was still cool that they thought to include him at all. He's certainly a character that deserves some love. So there ya go folks, go check out "Beware the Creeper", you'll be glad you did!

 

Classic Comics: The Doom Patrol

Classic "Silver Age" comic greatness.

I am, among many other things, a huge fan of comic books, and most especially, super hero comics books. And like with most things that I love, I happen to have a much stronger affinity for the older, classic entries in the medium, more-so than the more recent, modern output. When it comes to comics, I have always been what you would call a "Marvel guy", meaning I grew up loving characters from Marvel Comics, most especially the X-Men. And in general, with the primary exception of Batman (because I loved the 90s animated series so much), most of the comics and characters I loved the most, and perhaps still love the most, came from Marvel, or more specifically, the mind of one Stan Lee, the legendary father of such heroes as the X-Men, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor, The Avengers, The Silver Surfer, etc. etc. etc.

However, in as much as at one point in my younger days, I was a "Nintendo guy" but later came to also like and appreciate much Sega had to offer, I also was once decidedly a "Marvel guy", and for the most part, didn't get into or give much credence to most output from DC Comics, Marvel's biggest rival. But, much like my later appreciation for Sega, in later years I also grew up, and grew an appreciation for classic stuff from DC as well. In recent years, especially, I have made it more a point to explore and discover the many gems that DC Comics produced in years past. One of the greatest such gems, is a lesser known titled called "Doom Patrol". Seen above, is the very first appearance of this super team, in the pages of one of DC's many anthology books (comics that featured various different stories and characters), "My Greatest Adventure" issue #80 (1963). Several talents converged to create this, one of the first dedicated "super team" comics, but the main mind behind the Doom Patrol, was a man by the name of Arnold Drake, a veteran of the business known for, among other things, the equally somewhat obscure "Deadman" character for DC, and "Guardians of the Galaxy" for Marvel.

The first official, self-titled "Doom Patrol" issue.

Now, the Doom Patrol were a very unique, oddball group of characters, reminiscent in some ways of the earlier "Fantastic Four" (1961), and also the contemporary "X-Men" (1963). But even compared to those teams, Drake's creation took the cake for straight up weirdness, and perhaps even creativity (and I say that bearing in mind that X-Men and Fantastic Four are my two top fav. team comics of all time). The team consisted of four central characters: Dr. Niles Cauler aka "The Chief", Rita Farr aka "Elasti-Girl", Larry Trainor aka "Negative Man", and Cliff Steele aka "Robotman".

The Chief was, similar to the X-Men's own Charles Xavier, a crippled, wheelchair-bound man, who founded the team, and leads them on missions from his home base via radio communication. Unlike Xavier, or even his teammates, however, "Chief" is just that, a leader and strategist, with no super-human powers, only a brilliant scientific mind and inventive engineering ability, among other things. Elastic-girl, though her name would make you assume she stretches similarly to Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, was originally far more similar to Marvel's Ant-Man, as she had the power to shrink to near-microscopic size, or to grow hundreds of feet tall. Negative Man possessed perhaps the most unique powers of the bunch, as he was a former test pilot (and colleague of Hal Jordan, DC's own Green Lantern), and exposure to cosmic rays radiated and altered his physiology, giving him the ability to project an electrical "negative" of himself. While he used this power, his mind and consciousness traveled with the negative, while his body remained a vulnerable husk. And the most unique aspect of his character, was that his "Negative Man" projections had a time limit of 60 seconds, meaning if he stayed away from his body for more than 60 seconds at a time, he would fall into a coma and eventually die. Larry also had the misfortune, because of his radioactivity, to have to wrap his body in special bandages that helped contain the radiation and keep him together, which understandably made him bitter and isolated from others. But even given these handicaps, he was still arguably the most powerful member of the team, as his electrical negative could cause major damage. Last but not least of course, while Negative Man may have had the most unique powers, Robotman had the most unique nature. A former race driver, Cliff Steele got in a major accident, and would have died had it not been for Dr. Cauler's technology, which allowed his brain to live on in a metallic-ceramic body. Of course, feeling like a freak, Cliff hated this body, and had a hard time living with it (similar to the Fantastic Four's monstrous "Thing", Ben Grimm). But the robot body also afforded him near-invulnerabiltiy, super strength, near-limitless stamina, etc., making him the powerhouse of the team.

One of the best story arcs of this classic series.

The Doom Patrol naturally got into many incredible and strange adventures. Brought together and guided by The Chief, the core team of Elastic-Girl, Negative Man and Robotman would rush out in their jet plane to face all manner of threats, saving the world from various looming dangers. One of their greatest storylines, was a two issue crossover with fellow DC title "Challengers of the Unknown" (1957) . Challengers was the creation of one Jack Kirby, arguably the most famous (or infamous) comic book artist of all time, having worked on and in some cases co-created such characters as Captain America (back in his original WWII era debut), the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk with Marvel comics, as well as many others. Challengers specifically, featured a team of four non-powered adventurers, who were more explorers than heroes, who investigated all manner of science fiction and supernatural phenomenon, facing them off against all sorts of aliens, monsters, etc. Kirby would take some obvious key elements of this team with him when he left DC and moved back to what was by the early 60s called Marvel Comics (formerly Timely and then Atlas Comics), incorporating them along with Stan Lee into Marvel's first super team, the Fantastic Four, who were also a team of four adventurers who while heroes, often acted more as explorers. This crossover in particular was notable, though it only lasted two issues (one in each title), because it was one of the first ever crossover storylines between two separate, non-related titles.

Now the core cast of characters expanded a bit as Doom Patrol's run went on, eventually adding the teenage Garfield Logan aka "Beast Boy", whose green body could shift into any animal form he knew of, and Steve Dayton aka "Mento", whose self-invented special helmet enhanced his mental power, giving him telepathy and telekinesis, among other abilities. While these two weren't featured in every issue going forward, and the argument could be made neither were "official" members of the Doom Patrol, they were nontheless a part of the DP "family", and important characters. Mento was a rich, somewhat arrogant man, who originally created the helmet and donned the heroic persona to impress Elastic-Girl, though he would also eventually prove to be a reliable ally and hero. He and Rita eventually got married, and adopted the orphan Beast Boy as their own son.

Naturally, a superhero isn't much without threats and evil to fight, and the cast of Doom Patrol's "rogue's gallery" was no less unique and strange than the heroes themselves. The primary of these, were the immortal "General Immortus", who would be revealed to be responsible for the Chief's crippled body, the strange "Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man" who could change his body into just about any of those three categories you could imagine, and the most notable, the "Brotherhood of Evil". The Brotherhood, led by perhaps the strangest super-villain of all, "The Brain" (literally just a living human brain in a bottle), consisted of various nefarious types, the two most infamous of which were "Monsieur Mallah", an intelligent and speaking gorilla (who also happens to usually pack a machine gun), and "Madame Rouge", a French stage-actress gone bad, with the ability to twist and stretch her body into various shapes (ala Mr. Fantastic), as well as the ability to alter her appearance to disguise herself. It would be the Brotherhood that would wind up being the Patrol's greatest nemesis, and (SPOILERS), their ultimate downfall.

Perhaps the most shocking final issue in comic book history.

The irony, given their name, of the Doom Patrol, is also what they are (sadly) perhaps most well known for. By late 1968, sales on the title were lagging, and so DC decided to pull the plug. Now often throughout comic book history, especially super hero titles, when a title gets cancelled, there is often little real conclusion, as the decision is usually made as a last second sort of deal, not giving the writer and artist time to really come up with a fitting finale. Some have been lucky enough to tie up some loose ends and present readers with some sort of acceptable conclusion. Many others, however, were not so lucky, and would wind up ending abruptly, with no real "the end" at all, sometimes even right in the midst of an ongoing storyline. With the Doom Patrol, however, this was not the case. Arnold Drake had enough advance warning of his comic's impending cancellation, to allow him to plot out his team's final adventure, and going against typical comic industry practice (even to this day), he decided to do something that, for it's time especially, would be incredibly shocking and would continue to be remembered. In the final issue, #121, published October 1968, he scripted a series of events that saw the villainess Madame Rouge seeking revenge upon the Doom Patrol (who had once tried to rehabilitate her). Joining forces with a former Nazi U-boat captain who held a grudge against the Chief, she and her henchmen sent the Patrol a message, by attacking (and presumably destroying) her old colleagues Brain and Mallah. She then attacks the Patrol's secret base, ultimately informing them that a bomb has been planted both at the base, as well as a tiny Maine fishing village called "Codsville". Expecting them to choose to save their own lives, they are given the ultimatum to choose which bomb gets detonated. But in a surprising act of self-sacrifice, they choose to spare the innocent village, and their base is detonated instead.

So in the final issue of a comic, for the first time (and honestly something that hasn't been totally duplicated since), not only does the bad guy basically win, but the heroes are all (presumably) killed at the end. I guess you can't really get more of a dramatic and heroic end than that, sacrificing yourselves to save innocent lives. Of course, I would imagine that at the time, it was an ending few fans of the series were likely happy with. And while the issue itself featured letters from some of the staff urging readers to write in and demand the return of the team, the title never was resurrected, and the characters remained canonically dead for years. Beast Boy, who wasn't present at the end, would later go on to join a Teen Titans offshoot team called "Titans West", before later becoming more famous as part of the 80s comic "The New Teen Titans", under the new codename "Changeling". Mento even made a return as a temporary villain, having gone insane with grief over his wife's death. The Doom Patrol concept suffered various attempts to resurrect it, though the only character actually brought back to life was Robotman. The worst of this 80s reboot, was Grant Morrison's run, which typical for the writer's work, featured all manner of nonsensical storylines and dumb characters (in my opinion). Given that I am not a fan of Morrison's work, and that he basically ruined my favorite comic of all time (The X-Men), I'll just leave it at that, that he got famous in part by shitting all over what was once a great concept in the Doom Patrol.

All was not totally lost, however, as DC apparently re-rebooted (as they've been known to do) the title, this time bringing the whole original team back. I haven't read it, and don't have much interest, but at least those classic characters got another shot I suppose, even if their original death was tragically fitting. Of more important note, at least to me, is that the Patrol also featured in the final season of the cartoon series "Teen Titans" several years back, in the very first episode in fact. They completely omitted the Chief, and made Mento the leader of the team, which was odd, but otherwise, it was a great representation, and the Brotherhood (Brain, Mallah, Rouge, etc.), would go on to feature as the primary villains of that final season, in what was undoubtedly the second best story arc of that show (the first of course being the Slade/Deathstroke storyline). But even though the actual Patrol only got featured in one two-part episode, it was still great for the team to get mainstream exposure like that, and to have it do them justice (instead of ruining things as Hollywood so often does). That was good enough for me, and a nice surprise to boot.

So if you ever find yourself wanting to read some good classic comics, go hunt down the Doom Patrol, and give them a read. You won't be sorry. I highly recommend watching that two-part Teen Titans episode, "Homecoming", as well. Cheers!

Journey to the Land of Misfit Mascots

Well, I'm back in time for Thanksgiving Break, and rarin' to go with another entry into this fantastic adventure into Retro Magic. Now, inspired by my last article about Mick and Mac, I mentioned then that I should do an article about other forgotten gaming mascots at some point. And, well, what better time than the present? 

In the world of video game mascots, very few actually survive to become recognized over time, and even fewer become "Video Game Royalty". Some that have stood the test of the ages include Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Bomberman, Pac Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and probably the single most iconic video game character of all time, Mario. We're here today to talk specifically about a batch of characters who arose in the early-to-mid-1990s, right in the thick of the "Hey, Mario and Sonic make millions of dollars, let's get in on that shit while we can!" craze. Every major developer (and many minor ones), wanted a piece of that mascot gaming pie, and many of them took a crack at creating their very own "franchise ready" mascot, typically embodied in the form of the "Mascot Based Platformer". And much like the NFL Draft, a great majority of these attempts at successful franchises either failed outright, or had initial success but fizzled out later.

Now before we embark in earnest, I want to establish a few ground rules, so as to forgo any "Hey how come you didn't mention THIS character/game?" later on. The name of today's game, is to go over some of the now more obscure platformer mascot characters, specifically of the home console variety. There were indeed a great many of these similar characters/games on home computers, but to save time, I'm just not even going to go there. Another stipulation, is that I'm not going to bother with "2nd String" gaming mascots who may be lesser known now, but did at one point have a string of successful hits. Some of these would include the likes of Wonder Boy, Adventure Island, Bonk (who at one point was THE mascot for the Turbo Graphx 16 console), Dizzy (the Egg hero, super popular in Europe), Rayman, etc. Finally, I'm also only keeping it to characters/games that started in 2D, primarily on the 16-bit consoles, which was the era where this mascot game craze really existed in force. That means that characters who would come only a bit later, like Bug, Clockwork Knight, and Croc, just to name a few, also won't be mentioned, because they were part of the burgeoning 3D era.

So, without further adieu, away we go:

MAN, that's one bad ass looking........huh?

Name: Zool
Year: 1992
Developer: Gremlin Graphics
Number of Games: 2

Created by noted British PC developer and publisher Gremlin Graphics (later Gremlin Interactive), who were mostly known for the Monty Mole series on home computers, as well as the Top Gear racing games on Super Nintendo, Zool was one of many attempts to cash in on the success of the Mario and Sonic franchises. Zool stars the titular hero, an odd ant-looking "gremlin" alien ninja guy, or as the subtitle of the game states, "Ninja from the Nth Dimension". He has apparently been forced to land on Earth, and to prove his "Ninjahood", has to traverse through a bunch of crazy (very NON-Earth seeming) levels, to prove himself. Originally made as an Amiga computer game, even launching as a pack-in with the Amiga 1200, Gremlin obviously must have thought they were really on to something huge, because the game went on to be ported to practically everything under the sun. No joke, it was ported to: Acorn Archimedes computer, Atari ST computer, Amiga CD32, PC DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.

Take THAT, Vile Jello Mold Monster!!!

 In other words, this bad boy was whored out. Problem was, I'm not sure how huge of a success it really was, as most people I knew back in the early 90s didn't even really know about this game. It may well have been a bigger hit in its native Europe, but it certainly didn't crack much ground here in North America. The game was enough of a success to create one sequel, 1993's "Zool 2", which introduced a female second character, however the second game was only released for Amiga, DOS and Atari Jaguar (of all systems). The series received no further sequels, and likely won't, as Gremlin got bought by Infogrames and disappeared into the ether.

Animal with Attitude, Here to Smash Pollution!!

Name: Awesome Possum
Year: 1993
Developer: Tengen
Number of Games: 1

Now while practically every side-scrolling action/platformer game owed/owes its existence to the foundations set by Super Mario Bros. in 1985, there was a particular mascot-based gaming craze that came about in the early '90s. After the runaway success of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog (itself Sega's second attempt to cash in on the Mario formula, more on that later), it seemed that every developer and their second cousin on their mother's side wanted a piece of the action. And that action's name was "Anthropomorphic Animal with Attitude", because obviously, that's what the kiddies loved, right?

Well, one of the more obscure and less successful attempts, but also arguably the single most blatant attempt to directly rip off Sonic, was a game by Tengen called "Awesome Possum". Now Tengen was an Atari-spawned company mostly known for their home ports of arcade games (and legal scuffles with Nintendo over licensing issues.). On the other hand they were not so well known for creating original franchises. But create they did, and the end product was a game in which you play a sassy "Animal with Attitude", ala Sonic, and you fought an evil mad scientist called Dr. Machino and his robot minions, ala Dr. Robotnic (the American name for Dr. Eggman).

HOLY SHIT, HOW'D JASON GET IN THE GAME?

The "original gimmick", to differentiate it from Sonic, as you can see by the icon in the upper left of the screen above, is that this game was about Recycling and saving the planet. NOT just running and smashing robots like Sonic does. Of course. Awesome also had his own arsenal of muffled 16-bit-voice-synth snappy one liners he would spit out at a near constant rate, which also gave him a "one up" over the blue "Needlemouse". Or so Tengen probably thought. In all honesty, it's not a horrible game, but it wasn't a terribly great one either, and even though kids my age in '93 knew about it and played it, it ultimately wasn't a huge success, and never saw any sequels. Not so surprisingly, Tengen itself wound up going defunct in 1994.
 

Attitude!!!!

Name: Bubsy the Bobcat
Year: 1993
Developer: Accolade
Number of Games: 4

Speaking of "Animal with Attitude" Sonic ripoffs, another, more infamous offender was Bubsy. Created by Accolade, a prolific developer believe it or not, outside of their long-running Test Drive series, otherwise most known for the Bubsy franchise. The game's designer, Michael Berlyn, literally drew inspiration directly from Sonic the Hedgehog, claiming to play the game for 14-hour days for an entire week, trying to find inspiration to make a similar game of his own. The end result became "Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind" (GET IT?), which released concurrently for both SNES and Genesis.

And that's.....pretty much it.

The basis of the game is that the world is being invaded by an alien race called "Woolies", who are intent on stealing the world's entire supply of...wait for it...yarn balls. Yes. Yarn balls. And Bubsy, being a cat, is naturally disinclined to let that happen, as we all know cats go batshit for yarn balls. Never mind that Bubsy is, as indicated by his very name, a Bobcat, a wild cat, who is not known for playing with anything outside of, I dunno, dead prey? HOUSE cats, on the other hand? Sure, yarn balls "FTW". But let it never be said that practical common sense or logic entered the equation when it came to the Bubsy series. No, in fact, the very basis of the gameplay defies explanation, as your hero's main method of attack is...jumping and floating around. Because bobcats are well known for flying. It wouldn't make sense to have Bubsy use his claws to attack enemies, oh no. So floating it is!

Well, logic or not, the first game somehow managed to be popular enough to spawn not one, but three sequels: "Bubsy 2", "Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales" (an Atari Jaguar exclusive), and the semi-infamous (for being terrible) "Bubsy 3D: Furbitten Planet". As you might have noticed, from the titles of these games, the game developers obviously thought they were rather clever. Unfortunately, their cleverness seemed limited to Bubsy's in-game "sassy" one-liners and pun-based game titles, because the gameplay in this series was rather "meh". Ever wonder what happened to Bubsy? Don't. He's actually happier now, as he left the series in embarrassment after Bubsy 3D. I hear he became a car salesman.

2017 Note: As it turns out, Bubsy decided the sales life wasn't for him, as he expectantly got a shot at resurrection! Developed by Black Forest Games, a German development team previously responsible for resurrecting the obscure Giana Sisters, and published by UFO Entertainment, Halloween Day 2017 actually saw the release of a brand NEW Bubsy game, entitled "Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back". Perhaps learning a lesson from Bubsy 3D, this game is a side-scroller once more, though it features 3D graphics, and it seems to be a throwback to the original (and most successful) Bubsy game, as he is once again fighting those nasty yarn-stealing aliens, the Woolies. Who knew that there was redemption for a forgotten mascot? You can try the new Bubsy for yourself, out now on PC and Playstation 4!

Crappy box-art, decent game.

Name: Aero the Acro-Bat
Year: 1993
Developer: Iguana Entertainment
Number of Games: 2 (Technically 3)

Developed by none other than Iguana Entertainment, who would go on to fame as the creators of the original (see: good) Turok the Dinosaur Hunter games on Nintendo 64, and later still whose key figures would go on to form Retro Studios, now known for Nintendo's own Metroid Prime series. Aero the Acro-Bat was once again an "Animal with Attitude" type of affair, but unlike Awesome and Bubsy, this series actually wasn't half bad. Turns out, being good developers seems to have a direct correlation with making good games. I'll get back to you on that, as scientific study is ongoing.

Hey there.

So the story, in a nutshell, involves Aero, a red bat who lives and performs with a traveling circus. This circus is under attack by an evil clown named Edgar Ektor, who used to work for the circus, probably injured himself on the job, didn't get workman's comp, and now wants to put them out of business as revenge. We've all been there, right? Assisting Ektor in his egomaniacal schemes, is Zero, a squirrel (with an attitude no less), who happens to be a ninja or something, and is also intended to be Aero's arch-rival. Now in this game, much like Bubsy, your main method of attacking (And getting around), is jumping and floating. However, unlike Bubsy, this makes sense because Aero is a Bat, who...you know...have wings. Also, the game mechanics just work a hell of a lot better, where the floating feels far less "floaty".

Squirrel + Headband + Throwing Stars = Sold.

The game was successful enough to spawn not one, but two sequels: Aero the Acro-Bat 2, and as seen above, a spin-off game starring his nemesis Zero, aptly titled "Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel". This game seems to actually be a sort-of concurrent companion (story-wise) to Aero 2, as the game's plot seems to happen somewhat alongside that game. Zero's home island is being attacked by an evil lumber-jack named Le Sheets (yes I'm serious), and he leaves the evil Ektor's service to go back and save the island and his girlfriend. He does this by throwing an enormous amount of ninja throwing stars that you collect throughout the game (they're just hanging in the air all over the place, that's some island). Bottom line, all three games are pretty solid, and while they may not be well-remembered now, they stand the test of time pretty well.

He's so cool, he wears shades at night.

Name: Gex the Gecko
Year: 1994
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Number of Games: 3

Originally created by developer Crystal Dynamics, known for the Legacy of Kain series and later starting the Tomb Raider franchise, Gex was intended to be the "mascot game" for the launch of the Panasonic 3DO console. The problem there, was that the 3DO was the first dedicated CD-based home console, and while it was a decent system, it was grossly overpriced and thus didn't sell well. But Gex got lucky, and found second life, being ported over to the Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn, and even Microsoft Windows on PC. In these ports, he found popularity, and became a success.

Yes, that is a Gecko-Frankenstein's Monster.

Now the thing about Gex is, even on its native 3DO, it was and is actually a really awesome game. The premise of the series, is that you are Gex, a Hawiaan Gecko lizard, who lives with his family while his father works for NASA (no, I'm not making this up). His father died in a shuttle accident, which causes Gex to shut down, and become a TV addict. His mother moves then to California and takes his TV away in an attempt to snap him out of it, but instead he runs away and lives on the streets, until he somehow magically inherits (from who knows where) a huge sum of cash, which he promptly uses to move back to Hawaii, buy a huge mansion, and the world's largest TV to veg out in front of. While watching TV, he swallows some sort of techno-fly without thinking, and is then grabbed by a giant hand and pulled straight into the tube.

And so there you go. He has to fight Rez, the evil Media Overlord who brought him into TVland, to try and get home. The game's worlds are based on TV and movies, at least in general, though there are some specific send-ups, such as a boss of the Japan-type level, which is pretty much the monster Gamera from that series of movies. As Gex, you run, jump, and climb surfaces (ala Spider-Man), stomping bad guys and collecting enough remote controls to move on to the next area. All in all, a pretty fun game, and it was successful enough to spawn two sequels: "Gex: Enter the Gecko" and "Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko". Both of these games, however, featured 3D graphics and gameplay, unlike the first, which had 2D prerendered sprites (similar to Donkey Kong Country). The series hasn't seen an entry since 1999, but is still by and large fondly remembered by gamers.

Worm in a spacesuit with a laser-blaster. What more is there to say?

Name: Earthworm Jim
Year: 1994
Developer: Shiny Entertainment
Number of Games: 4

Created by artist Doug TenNapel and designed by David Perry (of Virgin Games fame and founder of Shiny), Earthworm Jim was a different sort of mascot. He wasn't quite the "Animal with Attitude" that so many others were. Instead, he was was a rather goofy mutant earthworm, who gets around by controlling a humanoid space-suit. Another big difference with this character, is that while I'm sure the other developers who tried to cash in with mascot games hoped for the same, Jim actually spawned a line of toys and an animated series. Although to be fair, Bubsy did have an animated pilot episode...it just never got picked up.

Catapulting cows is a key point in the gameplay.

The setting is rather bizarre, as fits the character himself. Jim is an average, everyday earthworm, until a special spacesuit randomly falls out of the sky. Crawling inside, he is able to use the suit to walk around and act like a human, which I would imagine vastly expands an earthworm's typical daily activities. Well, some aliens, whom the suit belongs to, come looking for it to get it back. So Jim has to use his suit, his natural worminess, and a cool laser-gun, to both escape baddies, and defend the aptly titled "Princess Whats-Her-Name". And that, in a nutshell, along with an assload of cow catapulting, is Earthworm Jim.

Fondly regarded, and initially successful, the game was ported to everything under the sun, originally Super NES and Genesis, but also Sega Master System, Game Gear, Sega CD, Game Boy, and even DOS. It also spawned 3 sequels: "Earthworm Jim 2", "Earthwork Jim 3D" (which only released on N64 and PC), and the Game Boy Color exclusive "Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy". The last two were not as well received, as with the last entry being released in 1999, the series has not seen a sequel since. In 2010 we did receive an HD remake of the original, downloadable on various platforms, and allegedly, an Earthworm Jim 4 was at some point in development. But otherwise, Jim's day in the sun has long since passed. On one final note, however, he did receive a cameo appearance as a playable fighter in Interplay's "Clayfighter 63 1/3" on N64.

Falcon POUNNNNCH!!!!!

Name: Alex Kidd
Year: 1986
Developer: Sega
Number of Games: 5 (+1 Japan-only spinoff)

So, as many people might not be aware, Sonic the Hedgehog was not Sega's first crack at trying to duplicate the platforming success of Super Mario Bros. That distinction goes to a character that is by now probably rather obscure, except to hardcore Sega fans, and long-time video game enthusiasts. His name was Alex Kidd (because two d's makes it cooler). And just by looking at that artwork above, you can tell that if nothing else, Mr. Kidd was certainly "80s cool". Alex himself, was a big-eared kid with martial arts skills, who seemed to be inspired by both Bruce Lee and Chinese mythological figure Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Now the reason I'm listing this series, despite it at one point being a long-running and successful series, is that unlike its Sega counterpart Wonder Boy, for example, Alex Kidd holds the distinction of being a rare case where a company mascot is totally replaced and then forgotten, in favor of another. In this case, the "90s cool" Sonic.

Punching things in the face is a full-time job.

The first game to feature him, was 1986's "Alex Kidd in Miracle World". As that original game's booklet would describe it, Alex is a 14 year old boy from the planet Aries, aka "Miracle World", who happens to be an orphan. He lives alone on Mount Eternal, mastering the art of "Shellcore", which makes one's fists so powerful that they can break rocks with a punch. Well, after sufficiently mastering the art of increasing the size and power of one's fists through sheer force of will, Kidd wanders down the mountain, discovering from a dying old man that the land of Radaxian has been overrun by an evil alien named Janken the Great, who has defeated King Thunder, and kidnapped Prince Egle and his fiance Princess Lora. As it would later turn out (SPOILERS), Prince Egle is actually Alex's long-lost brother, meaning that King Thunder is in fact his father. After whupping some ass with Gigantor-fists, Alex saves the day, Egle becomes king, and Alex sets out on a quest to find his missing father.

In 16-bits, Alex decides to add kicks to his repertoire.

The first game was popular enough, that it spawned several sequels. The first game being a Sega Master System exclusive, the next game, "Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars", appeared in both arcades and Master System. The series would return to Master System exclusivity with further entries, such as the Japan-only "Alex Kidd BMX Trial", which is essentially a rip-off of Nintendo's "Excitebike", as well as "Alex Kidd in High-Tech World", which not unlike Nintendo's "Super Mario Bros. 2", began life in Japan as a game based on an anime series, in this case "Anmitsu Hime", and was refitted for the West into an Alex Kidd game. Then the Sega Genesis came out in 1989, and as one of the first titles for the series, their mascot took center stage (next to Michael Jackson), in "Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle", where he finally gets around to following up on that whole "find my missing dad" thing. He hears that King Thunder (now for some reason called King Thor), is residing on Planet Paperock, so named because its denizens are masters of the game "Paper, Rock, Scissors". He goes looking for him and adventure, as usual, ensues.

Not content to smash rocks with fists, Kidd took up Ninja-ing.

 Though a moderate success, Alex had never rivaled Mario in any meaningful way, except perhaps in Europe where the Master System was apparently rather popular, and Sega finally decided they needed a newer, "cooler" mascot. With that, they set about creating "Project Needlemouse", which would later become Sonic the Hedgehog, and the rest is history. Alex would get one last send-off game, being relegated back to the Master System, in 1990's "Alex Kidd in Shinobi World". In many respects, this was the best game since the original, and many regard it as the best in the series. The game is, not surprisingly, largely inspired by the namesake "Shinobi" series, also made by Sega, and as such, Kidd gains many ninja-like abilities, including a cool katana sword, and throwing weapons. He could also wall-jump, and even gained the ability to turn into a flying fireball after swinging from hanging bars. The game was somewhat of a parody of Shinobi (mostly the Master System version), and as such has many enemies and bosses that are caricatures of their normal, more intimidating selves.

A moderate success itself, it still wasn't enough to convince Sega to keep him around, and they pretty much abandoned the poor guy, with Sonic debuting in 1991 to huge acclaim, more or less being single-handedly responsible for Sega finally competing head-to-head with Nintendo in the American marketplace.  Alex Kidd would receive a couple of very minor cameos in later Sega games like Altered Beast, but he would remain on hiatus for a couple of decades, until Sega finally brought him back as a playable character in games like "Sega All-Star Tennis" and "Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing". It's unknown if Sega will ever see fit to dust the poor guy off and give him his own proper, and much deserved, long overdue game again. But while he is certainly the saddest case of "forgotten mascots", he does still have a cult following, and his games have lived on through download services like the Nintendo Wii's "Virtual Console".


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And that about wraps it up folks. There were others that I didn't get into, such as Rocket Knight Adventures, Vectorman, etc., but I think I touched on all the major "2nd Stringer" examples. Some of these characters went into obscurity for good reason, because their games simply weren't that good. Others had great games, but just didn't remain popular or successful enough to remain relevant or continue getting new games. But much like the "Island of Misfit Toys" for which this article was named, in the end many of these games have received a second life and new younger audiences, through the advent of things like Youtube playthrough videos, Virtual Console and other download services, and even things like *ahem*...emulation. ;-)

And that's what is important when it comes to anything "Retro" worth mentioning, is that it is remembered, and that memory is carried on to new generations, keeping it, in essence, Alive. Thanks for reading, till next time!