This image was floating around the interwebs some time ago, apparently taken at a store in India:
It's a pretty standard oops-the-unlicensed-merchandise-got-it-wrong deal, but I think it was the slogan that really sold it: man behind brief and mask.
But it got me to thinking: maybe this wasn't the standard oops-the-unlicensed-merchandise-got-it-wrong deal, bur rather a special oops-the-unlicensed-merchandise-got-it-wrong deal. Maybe that Indian silkscreening had a dim memory of the classic villain Composite Superman, and got that wrong:
Wouldn't that be something?
LOL! I'm not so sure this was a mistake, though. What if this was some t-shirt maker knowingly making a winking reference -- "What's better than Superman OR Batman? My totally original character, Super-Batman! He's both in one!"
ReplyDeleteI mean, there's some of that playful impulse in the idea of the Composite Superman...as well as Super-Duper, the amalgam of five Justice Leaguers in JLA #31...or Marvel's Super-Adaptoid, combining the powers of the then-current Avengers...the Mimic from the X-Men...numerous other examples up to the present day. There's obviously such a primal appeal in the superhero mash-up that one can well imagine even the creator of unlicensed knockoff merchandise getting the same idea.
You might be on to something there! In fact, that imperitive even expressed itself in the second Fantastic Four movie, when Johnny shortly became something like the Super-Skrull.
ReplyDeleteAlso: OMG! I remembered Amazo but had completely forgotten about Super-Duper. Now there's a character ripe for a revival.