Cringeworthy Comicbook Moments - the Pull of the Prodigy!

[espanolbot]

From the Realm of the Public Domain, comes this, a free Spider-Man PSA about teenpregnancy!










Wait, the guy's name is the Prodigy?

Wait, the guy's plan is to spread false information about birth control to get teenagers pregnant, then steal the babies to raise on his home planet? Wouldn't it be easier to just teach them an abstinence centred sex ed course instead?










Wooooow, you've for a really low opinion of people with kids, don't you Peter?






Peter's idiot plan to impersonate a piece of architectural decoration goes as well as you'd expect.















And before I post the next piece in the CCM series, I have a quick question: are the Spire Christian Propaganda comics in the public domain at this point?

Comments

[alexanderlucard]

Like Hansi, the Girl Who Loves the Swastika? Yes, they are.

[jkcarrier]

Are you sure? I thought it took at least 70 years for something to fall out of copyright.

[alexanderlucard]

Not if the company goes out of buisness or loses the rights and or trademarks.

Spire's rights to the Archie stuff went out a while ago. About 25 years, and the Archie folk never claimed the rights, so those are in the public domain for say, making free pdfs or the like. As long as no money is being made. If someone was to try and sell reprints though, the Archie guys could sue because it has their characters in them, which ARE still under copyright and trademark.

Spire's non Archie comical are totally in the public domain unless someone bought the rights to specific characters or spire outright, and no one appears to ever have. So the rights are in a nebulous cloud of non-ownership.

[espanolbot]

Heeeeeeehhhhh. I know what my next CWCBM installment is going to be about then. :D

[alexanderlucard]

I actually tried to buy the rights to Swansi since I saw they were lapsed for a friend back in 2001. I could do it with the trademarl but couldn't figure out the copyright aspect due to tyhe lapse and lack of ownership.

[espanolbot]

Did some research, and it seems that it's based on a woman's biography. More info in the actual post about it...

[blackruzsa]

1) I did not know you could get pregnant during menstruation, and also, wow/ew.
2) The "about homosexuality" bit is surprisingly accurate, although the context might be different.
3) So the comic ends with Spidey obstructing the guy's windpipe with webbing? That'll end well.....

[runespoor]

1) Yes, yes you can. (Related: the Ogino method was a vast failure that led to a Whole Lot of babies being conceived during so-called "safe days". Counting days doesn't work.)

2) Yeah, and it's also rather depressing.

[espanolbot]

Yeah, looks like he pretty much killed that dude.

[blackruzsa]

That.... is not cool.
Either that or he permanently damaged him by cutting off oxygen, assuming the guy has a brain, and lungs.

Douchebag Spidey is a douche.

[espanolbot]

Well the guy WAS trying to mind control kids into breeding like rabbits so that human society would be ruined by the increase of unmarried parents before his race stole all the babies... or something. It's kind of vague.

Since this comic came out in the Seventies, if he was successful chances are that the spread of AIDS in the following decade would have really been a lot worse. In addition to unintentionally foiling his "human livestock" scheme.

[blackruzsa]

Yes, well, there were murderers and big crazy villains in Spidey's time but they didn't get this treatment. Plus, intention doesn't equal results.
It doesn't make him any less evil but killing/brain damaging a guy for trying and FAILING to get people to have sex is pretty douchebaggy all the same.

[blackruzsa]

It was a different time... I'm just glad the list of "about ---" wasn't as terribad as the comic itself.

[leoboiko]

Accurate, yes. Though I'd be much more comfortable if they added a bit about "It might also mean that you're a homo- or bisexual, but if so don't worry; there's nothing wrong with it."

[blackruzsa]

I replied above hahahah ^^^

[mrstatham]

*stares*

Is it just me or does the Prodigy guy actually look like Keith from The Prodigy when he has that mask on, a little bit? Something about the eyes.

[arilou_skiff]

For all the cringeworthiness of these kinds of comics.... I still kind of like them. It's like... At least they PRETEND to care.

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

"...not to mention the FCC..."

[biod]

"Being attracted to a person of the same sex" doesn't make you homosexual, apparently. Where they considering bi/pansexuality already?
Points for mentioning that masturbation is a-okay, though.

[janegray]

Well, it's more like it doesn't necessarily make you homosexual. Human sexuality is much more fluid than 100% gay, 100% straight, or bisexual who is perfectly equally interested in men and women. It's possible for an otherwise 99% straight person to occasionally feel attracted to a person of the same gender (off the top of my head, situational homosexuality: maybe s/he is horny and lonely and there are no people of the opposite gender around).

[biod]

True, but I thought it was funny that it was listed as a thing non-indicative as homosexual.

[salinea]

You don't need to be perfectly equally interested in men & women to be bisexual. You can be bisexual and be more often attracted by women than men, for example.

[janegray]

I know, I was making an extreme example.

[salinea]

Ah, okay. Nevermind.

[skemono]

Wait, the guy's plan is to spread false information about birth control to get teenagers pregnant, then steal the babies to raise on his home planet? Wouldn't it be easier to just teach them an abstinence centred sex ed course instead?

You say that as though there's a difference between abstinence-based sex ed and spreading false information about birth control.

[captainbellman]

>Implying that abstinence teaching is at all different from and more/less effective than simply keeping teens in the dark about birth control

[cypherfdp]

>Doing the 4chan greentext outside of 4chan

[espanolbot]

That was kind of what my joke was saying, yes.

[maseiken]

While the Prodigy's plan is pretty messed up, I think Spidey's counter-plan,
"Suffocate a man to death on Live TV" is a bit worse, those kids can be given the facts but they'll never forget the trauma.

Or was that part of his plan? To make sure they'd remember. This is a dark side to PSAs...

[cainofdreaming]

Well, if they associate the trauma with sex in the future that might be one of the best birth control tools. Like including subliminal pictures of Margaret Thatcher in their porn.

[crazycomiccult.blogspot.com]

I have a hard time criticizing the Spider-Man PSA's only because the ones I owned as a kid were my first American comic books and I read them till they fell to pieces so to this day they hold a very special place in my memory and no matter who cheesy and messed up they were they remind me of when I would re-read them just because Spider-Man was in them

[cypherfdp]

Note how the homosexuality part doesn't quite say that there's nothing wrong with it, but does go to great lengths to assure that you probably aren't gay.

[donnblake]

Which is a shame because that's otherwise a pretty good list.

[donnblake]

Interesting contrast here between the Prodigy's plans and Spiderman's assumptions- the Prodigy has no intention to force teenagers to raise unwanted children, he just wants to snatch the babies for labor. (Seriously, planet-o-dudes-and-duddettes, build some robots! Don't let Hank Pym near their programming).

Also weird how Spiderman goes from, "Nothing wrong with love or babies, you just need responsibility," to, "Ewwww, parenting!"

[cyberghostface]

I love how Spider-Man's standing there while the guy's on the floor and going "aargghhh, aaargghhh" in the background.