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Awesome Slapstick 1 3711

Playing cruel tricks on evil!

Slapstick is a Superhero character created by Len Kaminski and James Fry III, who first appeared in a four-issue limited series (November, 1992-February, 1993) by Marvel Comics. Despite being voted by Marvel readers as the best new character of 1992, Slapstick was left in obscurity until his recent appearance in Avengers: The Initiative.

Steve Harmon, our protagonist, is the classic clown of the class, devoting his life to pulling pranks, telling tasteless jokes, being generally irritating and dreaming about the prettiest girl in school. One evening, in an attempt to get revenge on a classmate who blew the whistle on one of his pranks[1], Steve dresses up as a clown and sneaks into a carnival passing through town. As it happens, the carnival was a trap created by the Evil Clowns from Dimension X in a scheme to kidnap people and enslave them for their Overlord. Seeing the clowns drag his friends through a magic mirror portal, Steve follows them through, just as the portal closes...

Steve is rescued by the Scientist Supreme of Dimension X, who explains that the incident caused a freak accident which has turned his body into "electroplasm", an indestructible and infinitely malleable substance. Using his circus mallet and his indestructible body, Steve smashes the Overlord's Mediocritizer, rescues his schoolmates, and destroys the mirror portal. As the dust clears, Steve is found by his friend Mike Peterson, who notes that he obviously just had an origin and thus should start fighting crime. Steve compromises by offering to play cruel tricks on it instead, and dubs himself Slapstick.

Slapstick's primary ability is his highly agile and indestructible body, which gives him the composition of a living cartoon. While he can be burned, shot, smashed, crushed, twisted, and anything else, he recovers almost instantly with no harm. Slapstick's clown gloves have a molecular stabilizer to allow him to change to human form, and a sub-spacial storage pocket to allow him to hold a single item in Hammerspace. Slapstick can also get a temporary boost in size and strength if he is zapped with electricity.


Slapstick (the character) and the limited series provide examples of:[]

Cquote1

 "I need my own series! Write to Tom DeFalco! Write to Mark Gruenwald! Write to your Congressman!"

Cquote2
Cquote1

 "Teddy go on mindless rampage!"

Cquote2
  • Mind Control Device: The Mediocritizer of Dimension X, which turns ordinary students into boring, unimaginative drones for the Overlord.
  • Monster Clown: The Evil Clowns from Dimension X in issue #1. Slapstick himself arguably becomes one after Avengers: The Initiative.
  • Must Have Caffeine: The Neutron Bum from issue #4, an irradiated homeless man who became angrier (and more explosive) as people continued to ignore his requests for money to buy a cup of coffee.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: Slapstick has been shot with bazookas, burned with fire, zapped with electricity, twisted into a knot, and kicked across New York City with no ill effects. The only thing that can really hurt him is a specific frequency of energy that disrupts the molecular bonds of his electroplasm body, and that only works temporarily.
  • Ordinary High School Student
  • Rule of Funny: The main only driving point of the series.
  • Rummage Fail: Done with "infinite pockets" in Avengers: The Initiative #10. Rage specifically told him not to fool around, but...
  • Shapeshifter Baggage: Slapstick becomes stronger and larger when he gets zapped with electricity, with no explanation for the extra mass.
  • Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Happens to Slapstick as of Avengers: The Initiative.
  • Show Within a Show: Steve and Mike's own, heavily modified Slapstick comic "A real comic book hero has to have majesty!" as well as Steve's dream which plays like an old monster movie.
  • Slapstick
  • Take That: A major source of comedy, especially at Comic Book super heroes. Such as when Steve and Mike were pondering super-names...
Cquote1

 Mike: "How about 'Captain Clown'?"

Steve: "Dumb."

Mike: "'The Joker'?"

Steve: "Taken."

Mike: "'The Jester'?"

Steve: "Dumb and taken."

Cquote2
  1. it involved a medical school cadaver and the school cafeteria
  2. for their involvement in the accident that led to the Superhuman Registration Act