Hey kids! Videogame tie-ins!

[skjam]

Hi folks!

Video game comics are a mixed bag. Some of them have been quite dreadful, others adequate, and then there's the best runs of the Archie Sonic title, which have been amazing.

This one is more towards the bottom of the scale, Super Mario Bros. #5.



I'll be presenting three pages each from two ten-page stories.



Our first story is "Duh Stoopid Bomb!" byBill Vallely and Mark McClellan. We open with a conference room in the Mushroom Kingdom. It's explained that Koopa is planning something dreadful, and Toad is infiltrating the villain's castle to find out what.

Toad has put on a particularly shoddy Shyguy disguise, and learns that the Stupid Bomb is worked by throwing it, and anyone in the blast radius becomes really stupid for hours. Toad offers to take the bomb as the minion holding it looks tired, then sheds his disguise.




Meanwhile, in World 2-1, the amassed army is now equipped with Stupid Bombs, which are perfectly safe as long as you don't drop them. "Uh-oh!" "Is there a problem back there?" "...Maybe?" And there's a chain reaction from there.

The lieutenant in charge meets Mario and Luigi, and assumes that they're guests, so gives them Stupid Bombs as presents. Since M&L aren't at the top of their game, they assume this means they won and start back towards the Mushroom Palace.

The lieutenant then reports to Koopa, who is pleased that the bombs were taken, as then Mario or Luigi will inevitably use them in the palace, making it a walkover for Koopa's troops. But wait, aren't Koopa's troops kind of stupid right now themselves? Koopa thought of that and had a bunch of intelligence-raising Smart Bombs created.

And then had them stacked in a pyramid. The lieutenant promptly takes one from the bottom to examine it.



The trapdoor leads to the Fiery Fryguy kindergarten. "Can I sit on your lap, Mr. Koopa?"

Sometime later, the Mushroomites are beginning to come out of the Stupid Bomb's stupor, except the KIng who was never affected in the first place. Mario and Luigi return at this moment, arms filled with loot. Everyone's forgotten what caused the problem, so the Mario brothers decide to test one of the bombs.

But since the Koopa army keeps re-dosing itself, with the bombs, the danger is minimal.

---

The second story is "Cloud Burst" by the same two guys. We open in the Mushroom Palace throne room, where the Princess is interrogating Wooster. Mario and Luigi interrupt.





Lakitu spots Mario and Luigi and starts throwing spiked eggs at them. Mario escapes, Luigi winds up on Lakitu's cloud. Long story short, Luigi stumbles his way into returning the stolen crowns and redistributing the gold, at the cost of being stripped to his boxer shorts.



To give you a little cultural context, advertised in this issue was the Ghostbusters II video game.



If you're new to Scans Daily, please review the language policy before commenting, as we're pretty strict on ableist pejoratives.

Next time, a morality tale from the public domain!

Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!

Comments

[freezer]

I don't think it says good things when Peach is the only one hit by the Stupid Bomb who's expression doesn't change...

[skjam]

But her hair becomes disheveled.

[q99]

Her smile becomes wider, and she goes crosseyed

[mullon]

I had the book of these when I was a kid. Never could completely get past how they didn't completely gel with the games, but they at least gave the characters characterization.

[silverhammerman]

Speaking of videogame tie-ins, I haven't seen anything from the Archie Comics Megaman series in a while. I've heard it's really quite good.7

And my initial reading of the first panel from the second story was that Mario and Luigi had interrupted Peach's tryst with Wooster. This is what the internet has done to me.

[skjam]

Panel one on the first page of that story makes it look even more like that if you don't read the dialogue.

[silverhammerman]

And those thrones? Awfully phallic.

[skjam]

In a single page story in this issue, the Mushroom King swaps his throne out for one that folds into a bed.

[q99]

-Speaking of videogame tie-ins, I haven't seen anything from the Archie Comics Megaman series in a while. I've heard it's really quite good.7
-

Yep. Just-finished story arc was about a group of human terrorists who feel threatened by advanced robots/have been harmed by them in the past (one of them lost his eye to a robot master in Dr. Wily's first attack), and the robots have to figure out how to protect the scientists and themselves while restricted by code that prevents them from harming humans.

[darkblade]

Why are Mario and Lugi so worried about attacking Bowser/King Koppa's army on their own? They do it all the time.

Besides in formations like that they only need to jump on one Koppa and they will take care of themselves.

[thanekos]

Koopa Kola?

Pfft, Kerokero's clearly the superior brand.

[skjam]

But Koopa Kola comes in both Plain and Crunchy!

[ilmari]

Luigi's expression at the top of page four really says, 'Dude, I am high as fuck right now!'

[riddler13]

Good icon choice! Specially because Princess Peach kinda looks like Ditzy Doo on the first story! :)

[wonderwomanhero]

I have both volumes of Super Mario Bros Super Show on DVD. I regret nothing.

[zapbiffpow]

Valiant should have made a videogame tie-in to Minesweeper. That s*** makes for a gripping tale every time.

[icon_uk]

If Hollywood can make a movie out of Battleshi.... actually, never mind, move along, nothing to see here...

[darkblade]

It's too late they already heard you.

[mrstatham]

I'm sorry, but any story that has a villain being dropped into a pit with the dialogue 'I'm beginning to not like you' can't possibly be bad.

[lissa_quon]

Motto

[pyrrhocorax]

I love how Peach is just slamming a vase off a table while shouting "It's a conspiracy!!"

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Oh boy, these comics... I still have scans from the old community I should repost sometime. Suffice to say, I would love a new Mario comic on the level of Archie's Sonic and Mega Man, or Nintendo Power's Super Mario Adventures.

Unfortunately, all we got were these... which were basically akin to the groan-worthy slapstick of Sonic's early days, though not as consistently good (it had its moments, but just as many missteps, if not more).

Valiant's Nintendo Comic System output was overall terrific for everything but Mario, sadly.

Sadly, Mario never got to evolve as Sonic did, with the whole thing shutting down before too long. The biggest problem is that the majority of stories felt like idiot plots, and the King notwithstanding, usually with a different idiot each time.

I'm still not even sure what was with Luigi in that second story up there.

The Koopa Kids stories were typically the best ones, even if they did play off of idiot plots.

In the first story above, at least Koopa has some good moments-- I love "I don't see how this could possibly work out to my advantage."

[eyz]

Ha!
I remember those!
I had a bunch of them!

Which makes me ask..Did they ever TPB those?
Or is Nintendo trying to forget all about them/bury them in the past like the Live Mario movie?