Sunday, November 25, 2007

BAM! POW! ZONK!

It's no longer a Zonk if a comic book character becomes a TV character, while the original comic book gets mentioned in some other show. Super-powered beings are the stuff of comic books, so it would stand to reason that Toobworld comics would be published about "real" super heroes.

This came up several times in "Graphic", this past Friday's episode of 'Numb3rs'. The focus at the comic book convention crime scene was on two comic books only to be found in Toobworld, "UltraWorld" and "Nano Punk". But mention was made of other super heroes like Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and Daredevil - all of whom exist in the TV Universe.

(I noticed no DC comics were mentioned in the episode. Could that have been part of a product placement deal with Marvel?)

All of the above-mentioned comic super heroes exist in the Tooniverse, (and a few of them over in the movie universe as well); but that's not a major concern here at Toobworld Central. But they have all made their debuts on Earth Prime-Time one way or the other - Spidey had his own TV series back in 1978; Doctor Strange had his own TV-movie which served as the unsuccessful pilot for a series; Daredevil partnered up with the Hulk in a TV movie sequel to 'The Incredible Hulk'; and the Fantastic Four (the same actors from the two recent movies) showed up to play basketball against Magic Johnson in 2005 NBA promotional spot.

Other "real life" super heroes appeared in Toobworld comic books over the years and the same situation would apply. In fact, it all began with Superman and he's the perfect example of existing in Toobworld and in comic books at the same time. In "The Birthday Letter", one of the episodes of 'The Adventures Of Superman', little Katie is seen reading the comic book based on his life.
The Superman comic book continued to be published long after the death of Superman in the dimension of Earth Prime Time. (Superman still lives in other TV dimensions.) And apparently the facts of his secret identity must have become public knowledge, because they were worked into the comic books as well.

This is how Jerry 'Seinfeld' learned that Superman's father on Krypton was named Jor-El, which is the word he used for his bank code.

So, no Zonks here, Masked Man!

BCnU!
Toby OB


Alan:
"Oh, you were into super heroes?"
Larry:
"
Well, Daredevil, Fantastic Four.
Of course my favorite was Galactus
."
Charlie:
"That’s the guy who ate planets."
Larry:
"
Yeah, well, he was stellar Darwinism.
He was necessary to the survival of the universe
."
Charlie:
"Huh?"
Larry:
"Yeah, he was the third force along with eternity and death."
Charlie:
"Larry, he wanted to eat the Earth."
Larry:
"But, he didn’t."
'Numb3rs'

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here's another good example - remember when Mary Richards was trying to impress her boyfriend's son, and she talked about reading "wonder Woman" comics when she was a girl? When she asked him if he liked Wonder Woman, he said, no - because she was too butch!

And she is a character who lives in your Toobworld too.