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Not Brand ECHH #7

Not Brand ECHH #7

"The Origin of Stuporman"

Published (by Marvel Comics): April 1967

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Taylor

Congratulations! You've found the ONLY non-DC review for a comic book on this entire site. Not Brand ECHH was a Marvel title from 1966 that lasted for a grand total of 13 issues. It was Marvel's first satire title that poked innocent fun at items of the day such as The Monkee's and The Beatles, much like Mad Magazine. This 10-page story was written by Stan Lee and featured the only appearance of Stuporman. That's right. Not Stuperman. There's an "O" in there, as in drunken stupor, although alcohol never came into the issue. I assume it was for copyright purposes. The character looked a heck of a lot like our old familiar Superman, but with ballet shoes instead of boots and a red and yellow $dollar$ sign on his chest, although the emblem changed constantly to reflect a given panel in the story, including the seal of the comic code authority and a YWCA sign.

Stuporman, a.k.a. Twink-Ell, son of Spark-Ell of the planet Kreepton, was sent to Earth in a rocket ship when the planet "went boom." He landed in Hicksville, USA and was adopted by an elderly couple. He grew up and moved to Megopolis where "The Man of Steam" disguised himself as Kluck Kettle, reporter for the Daily Platitude. Representatives of "Natural Comics" (who constantly say things like Dynamic Conjuring, Discuss Cogently, Darling Characters and so on) offered Stuporman money to make a comic book about him. Upon accepting the offer, Natural Comics added villains, Stuporman Family and other common Superman related parodies to his ongoing story, which was reflected in his everyday superheroics.

The "Natural Comics" publishers decided Stuporman was becoming too powerful. Remember that at this time, Superman in DC Comics had the power to blow out a star with his Super-breath. They exposed him to what was Diabolically Called "Kreeptonite." Eventually all the Supervillians, including "The Jokester" who was really a "Gnatman" villain, had Kreeptonite to use against Stuporman.

To introduce the "Stuporman Family," Stuporman was struck by a Kreeptonite bomb while in mid-flight and was saved by Stupordog, who was also hit by a K-bomb. They were saved by Stuporgirl, who was hit by a K-bomb, then Sneaky - the Stuporcat, a Stuporsnake, Stupormonkey, Stuporrhino, Stuporhorse, Stuporskunk and Stupor-Salesman.

After capturing all of the Stuporman family and the Natural Comics publishers, the Man of Steam deposited them in a rocket and sent them into space. When he returned to Megopolis, the name had been changed to New York and was overrun by parody versions of Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four and The Avengers yelling in unison, "Who says this isn't the Marble age of comics?"

3Story - 3: Obviously, there's no other appearance of Stuporman to compare this too, but it's not hard to tell good parody (see Saturday Night Live) from bad parody (see Saturday Night Live again). Young comic fans today know that Marvel and DC are in constant competition for the top spot among publishers, but there's no bad blood between them, or at least very little, and both poke fun at each other in their books. Plus this was clearly parody, so DC wouldn't have been able to sue even if they wanted to. Marvel was doing healthy business with all sorts of titles in the late 50's, but DC still had main market for superheroes. That was until 1961 when Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four as a marketing answer to DC's Justice League of America.

This issue was published in 1967, a mere 6 years into Marvel's return to Superhero properties. Fans now had The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, Spider-Man, Daredevil and to a lesser extent, The X-Men (when the book would actually come out). But this was still early in Marvel's success. The Silver Age was ending and DC was still the #1 publisher, so this was a bold move on Stan Lee's part because at this point, Marvel still could have gone the way of Valiant Comics, but again it was clearly parody and all in good fun.

2Art - 2: Every drawing was silly, but not always well done and certainly not on par with Mad Magazine. I have a hard time enjoying what is basically Superman, but with a Hitler haircut. Oh, and Stuporgirl looked like an 80 year old woman, which wasn't on purpose. Although this was the era of four color fantasy, there was less detail than I usually expect from a Silver Age comic.

4Cover Art - 4: I work in a comic store and every now and then someone brings in a pile of old comics that we can actually sell. This one grabbed my eye for a review because it was clearly a Superman parody, complete with a pentagonal $dollar$ sign "S" on his chest and Lois Lane reading a copy of "Spidey-Man." I'll give any cover that grabs my attention that way at least a 4 out of 5.

Pre-Crisis Superman Comic Book Reviews

1938-1949

1950-1959

  • Superman #76 (May/June 1952) - “The Mightiest Team in the World”
  • Superman #80 (January/February 1953) - “Superman's Lost Brother”
  • Superman 3D (1953) - “The Man Who Stole the Sun”, “Origin of Superman” and “The Man Who Bossed Superman”
  • Superman #87 (February 1954) - “The Prankster's Greatest Role”
  • Superman #88 (March 1954) - “The Terrible Trio”
  • Superman #89 (May 1954) - “Captain Kent the Terrible”, “Superman of Skid Row”, and “One Hour to Doom!”
  • Superman #91 (August 1954) - “The Superman Stamp” and “Great Caesar's Ghost”
  • World's Finest #88 (May/June 1957) - “Superman and Batman's Greatest Foes”
  • Superman #115 (August 1957) - “The Midget Superman!”
  • Superboy #65 (May/June 1958) - “The Amazing Adventures of Krypto Mouse”
  • Action Comics #242 (July 1958) - “The Super-Duel in Space”
  • Superman #123 (August 1958) - “The Girl of Steel”
  • Superman #127 (February 1959) - “Titano the Super Ape”
  • Action Comics #252 (May 1959) - “The Menace of Metallo” and “The Supergirl From Krypton”
  • Superman #129 (May 1959) - “The Girl in Superman's Past”
  • Superman #130 (July 1959) - “The Curse of Kryptonite!”, “The Super-Servant of Crime!”, and “The Town that Hated Superman!”
  • Jimmy Olsen #40 (October 1959) - “Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl's Pal”

1960-1969

1970-1979

1980-1986

Compilation Volumes

Miscellaneous

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