Thursday 3 January 2013

Merchandising is where the real money is made


Welcome to the final Part of Spidey-Man Vs Gnatman and Rotten!

You know what? I think I am not that crazy after all, I mean I don't want to learn how to do The Batsui so I guess I will be leaving The…

The story so far - J Jawbone Junkton signed a byzantine contract to get Gnat-Man and Rotten to get rid of Spidey-man as a greedy spider ate JJJs stamp collection, with Gnat-Man beating Spidey-man by invoking the law of gravity when Spidey-man's web was not attached to anything, so it appears JJJ has got what he wanted - or has he?
It's looking rather doubtful as we start with no less than 5 Gnat signals all over town…

No, not that Gnat signal and theres even a Gnat signal on JJJs back… and a building declaring "watch gnats tonite"

Then we get to see Rotten jump over JJJ in "Holy Pursuit" having just passed a woman wearing a gnat skirt,

a gnat jumper (for women),

and a gnat hat

She is holding a baby wearing a baby gnat costume as well (whose first word is "Gnaturally")

NONE of this apparel existed when this comic was written….

Leaving merchandising alone for a moment we move to the final panel where Gnat-Man is revealed to be chasing "The Pelican" who has apparently got away the "last six hundred times"…

There is a carton character called Paddy the Pelican which apparently is one of the "Worst Cartoons Ever."

Well you can judge for yourself if you wish



BUT it's much more likely that The Pelican is a not too subtle reference to The Penguin,  especially given the similarity in apparel



And for trivia fans, in the Batman Tv show "The Penguin's a Jinx" Season 1 Episode 4,  The Pelican Arms Hotel is featured

Of course in the Batman TV show The Penguin was played by the legendary Burgess Meredith who would go onto to start in many other roles, notably Michael "Mickey" Goldmill the boxing trainer from the first few "Rocky" movies


"The six hundred times" is in general reference to the perceived lameness of The Penguin Character who has no real ability or strength just some unusual weapons.  Put against Batman it was never a fair fight and this was being said way back in the 60's!

NEXT!

Miss Brunt (A parody of Betty Brant )
(yes this is a meta reference, of course)

and is shown wearing a Gnat-man and Rotten Fan Club T-Shirt…


Which while the Batman TV show fan club didn't have a T-shirt mentioned in the advert it did include "easy to follow, step-by-step instructions of how to do The Batusi"

YES, The Batsui


And yes that dance does look remarkably familiar...



In the next panel we have JJJ watching the tv showing Gnat News, in which Gnattin' (instead of nothing) is doing and the picture inside the picture Gnat man and Rotten are presumably sponsoring the Gnat News in association with Gnat Crispies



So (as we have seen) apart from one item, Marie Severin predicted everything before it even existed! And talk about merchandising overload, it's enough to make one wonder if there was a Gnat flame thrower…


NEXT!

and finally
JJJ realises he made a big mistake, as Gnat-man and rotten are worse than Spidey-man as they are far far more ubiquitous and annoying - just like their non parody counterparts who had a Tv show and 3 or 4 monthly comic book titles compared to no tv show and only 1 comic for spider-man, so the bad guy gets his comeuppance for not reading the small print on the contact...

Meanwhile we have three people sitting on a park bench (that has wet paint) who appear to be drawn directly by John Romita Sr who are most likely:-

Mary Jane Watson

Gwen Stacey

and of course Peter Parker


We can also see a hobo looking in the trash and finding Spider-mans costume this is of course is a reference to Amazing Spider-Man #50, July 1967 which is of course drawn by Romita and in which Peter Parker quits being spider man


And we conclude with Peter Parker having fun with these two ladies, why would he bother being spidey-man if he is so hated and all it does is make his life more complicated?!

As it says Its The Livin' End and Peter Parker can now go on living!

As indeed can we!

THE END

NEXT WEEK: Something completely different

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