So, more on World's Finest v.1 #4!:
The Crimson Avenger was not only a lame hero, but he had an even lamer sidekick, Wing:
Of course the Chinese guy has to wear yellow, that being the color of his skin and all. And he simply had to wear the hat. And he had to say weird Chinese-centric things in broken English.
But, worst of all, he had no code name. He was simply called "Wing" whether he was in costume or not (much like Captain America's sidekick "Bucky."). That not only defies logic, but presents something of a safety issue. I mean, if your name is "John" or something really common, I guess it doesn't matter, but when you have a rather goofy name, you probably should come up with something else.
It's like the Crimson Avenger and Captain America were important enough that they should be protected by a secret ID, but it didn't really matter if the sidekick was murdered in his sleep. The fact that this was actually the case was irrelevant. Couldn't we at least make a token effort to protect these people?
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I don't get this joke. I really don't:
And, before you ask, that is the joke in its entirety. What did I miss here?
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This was the King, who was kind of a precursor to the Human Target in that he would use disguises as a weapon, and would often disguise himself as intended victims or mobsters. He wasn't that interesting, but whenever a hero is singing, no matter how much of a fifth-rung character he was, it gets you in this blog.
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Cue the schnauzerphant from Legion of Super-Heroes #304!
Oh, yeah. Good stuff.
See you tomorrow!
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12 comments:
Um... they really did want beads? Which they apparently could not get, even though they could get department store stuff to pass off as Native?
I'm as stumped as you are.
And for the record, I would have taken a bit more of U.S. 1. It was just hard to have it all at once, all the time. You could intermingle it with other awful comics. You know?
Yeah, that's a pretty bizarre "humor" strip. Sheesh.
I think the deal with US-1 was the same deal as to why MST3K never lampooned Plan 9 from Outer Space: Too easy.
I think the joke is : that the Native Americans here are big fakers, and they are counting on the imbecility of the paleface to think of "beads" and go to the only place he could buy "beads' to his mind: a jewelry store.
Having assessed the beads are valuable enough, they give him the junky fake artifacts. The moral:
1. Indians are scheming thieves
2. Anglos are incredibly dumb
And the "joke" is incredibly pathetic.
I can handle more U.S.-1, too. :-)
I wouldn't mind seeing more U.S. 1 in the future...it just might be too hard to take all at once. I just want to see you get to the one issue of U.S. 1 that I picked up way back when--it somehow involved our trucker hero meeting up with an alien whose spaceship ran on chicken parts.
I can't decide whether I want more U.S. 1, or instead something on the fantastical amazingness that was the X-Men/Micronauts crossover mini-series.
Stop looking at me like that. >:
-- cleome45
I think they tried to combine two different joke premises at the same time-taking advantage of tourists and Indians taking beads for payment.
That never works.
What Chris C and Desca said.
It's like they took two set-ups for different jokes but the punchline is for an entirely different third joke and comes off as especially lame.
I don't think they were trying to be racist, they just botched a "dumb guy" joke that happened to feature indians and a tourist.
When it comes to the lack of names in costume, don't forget the Green Hornet's sidekick, Kato.
Two words: Anal beads.
"The Crown Card! So all along . . . he was The King!" Great Golden Age stuff.
As to Wing, I'm reminded of Frank Chin's observation that "If Charlie Chan uses first-person pronouns, does not walk in the fetal position, is not played by a white man, and looks and acts like a real Chinese, he's not Charlie Chan anymore." Ditto, mutatis mutandis, for Wing: as soon as the JLA realized that he was a Soldier of Victory, there weren't Seven Soldiers anymore. Right?
U.S. 1. was fine by me. Bring it on!
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