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Ta-da
A cell phone factory. Child laborers sit at long tables, wearily putting phones together as stern overseers scowl at them. A well-dressed executive is giving a tour of the factory to visiting execs. The tour guide says: “And this is where the magic happens…”
This joke is submitted by comedy legend David Mandel. And you think my jokes are dark. Wow! Anyway, this is a great joke, and one of you should draw it, because then you could say you’ve collaborated with David Mandel, which is pretty cool.
In his free time, Dave is a well known collector of original comic art. I wonder if he has any thoughts about The Shield:
The Shield was, famously, the first “red white and blue” superhero. Latecomer Captain America had to change his shield to the now iconic circular design because his original shield was too similar to The Shield’s costume. The Shield was popular for years, but then the Archie virus infected MLJ comics and swiftly ate up all the superheroes.
The Shield’s sidekick is a twelve year-old boy named Dusty. The Shield originally had superpowers and Dusty didn’t. There are several other mismatched Golden Age superteams like this, but it always struck me as odd. The morality of taking a kid into battle with you is iffy at best, but it looks way worse if you’re an adult with super strength and super skin and super healing, and your partner’s super power is youthful enthusiasm.
They (the comic book writers) eventually took The Shield’s powers away from him. Maybe it seemed weird to them, too.
What I think might be unique in the Shield/ Dusty pairing is their costumes. Dusty wears a cape. The Shield does not. I can’t think of another superhero/ sidekick duo like this. Usually a team is a “cape” team (like Batman and Robin), or a “no cape” team (like Flash and Kid Flash). I’ve never seen another mix-and-match couple like this. Does anyone know of any other examples? David?
Draw my comics. I’ll post them here.
Since the fundamental law of the superhero universe is that the superhero is never permanently disabled, the proper moral calculus is that it would be cruel NOT to allow children to participate. It's like saying you can't ride a bike until you turn eighteen.
the superhero universe is only superficially the world as it is—good versus evil. It is actually the world as it should be--good reliably triumphant over evil.
Brilliant!