Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #59: Slapstick

Not the guy to call if you are afraid of clowns.

The comedic superhero is a time-honored tradition.  Sometimes its just a hero like Spider-Man who cracks wise during any given fight.  Other times you get a hero like Plastic Man, who may or may not be the straight man in his own adventures but has goofy powers and kooky adventures to compensate.

Then there’s Slapstick.  He didn’t fight crime.  He played cruel jokes on it.

Slightly Misplaced Comics Hero Case Files #14: 90s Ghost Rider

Real Firestone tires!

 

Legacy heroes are nothing new.  DC has practically built their whole universe around it when they revived a few of their Golden Age heroes as new Silver Age versions with new names, looks, and in some case, powers.  Marvel hasn’t done it quite so often, but there have been a couple cases.  The big problem with a legacy hero, where the superhero name can be passed along to a successor, is that sooner or later the original–or at least best known version of that character–returns and takes the mantle back.  This can occur no matter how popular the new guy is, though the new guy may stick around for other reasons.

Dan Ketch, the Ghost Rider of the 90s, was not one of those new guys who got to stick around.