Hitler's bad day

[davemerrill]

Originally posted by misterkitty at post

Hitler gets bossed around by Satan and Satan's girlfriend and Atilla the Hun, this week at Stupid Comics!

Comments

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

You know, this was probably one of the most amazing 'Stupid Comics' I can remember. The art isn't too bad but the dialog! OMG that dialog is fantastic!

I know that the criteria for what makes a comic Stupid is a series of complex variables and not just simple things like 'inept art' or 'crap storytelling' or 'swipe city' but in this specific case, I kind of feel bad for the comic.

It seems a kind of brilliance to take a normal 'guy who punches Hitler' assignment and completely flip it into a '30s-'40s screwball comedy.

Ya think Satan gets the same 'push' from Madam Satan at home? "SATAN! Did you take out the trash?"

I'm puzzled by The Destroyer. He seems to just hang around Germany, sitting in trees, peering into windows. Good thing nobody notices him. From dialog, it seems he's shown up and punched Hitler before, or at least punched a bunch of Nazis in front of Hitler. Hitler really doesn't want any of that beyond being the traditional 'bully coward'.

Is The Destroyer (not to be confused with the protagonist from a series of neo-pulp novels) a 'supernatural' hero or just a dude? And with Madam Satan involved, does this mean Archie Comics owns him now? Or am I thinking of a different Madam Satan?

He does seem to have one power. That last panel, he's pointing his hand at the 'turn to stone' powder puffer and it seems to be undergoing spontaneous combustion. Or the artist just forgot to draw the whole 'take a box of matches and strike one and put it to the puffer' deal.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I think the Golden Age Destroyer is an American guy who stuck around Germany when Hitler came to power and puts on the mask to sabotage Nazi plans. I don't know if he has any super powers and am not even going to bother to google up any one of the super hero websites that would tell me about him. In this story he really acts like a Bugs Bunny character, showing up to screw with Hitler for the heck of it.

The use of "Madam Satan" here and in Archie's Pep makes me think the character was enough of a archetype to get used a bunch of places.

Apparently the artist, Mort Leav, this was his only work for Timely, but he did a lot of work for Hillman's "Airboy" comics, so they say. I kinda like the cross between realistic and cartoony he manages.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

So, then, Madam Satan isn't a specific character so much as the generic 'evil woman' kind of stereotype? With the nagging and the yelling and the sweet whispers and the sex-ay shape? OK.

Yeah, I dig. I can't be arsed enough to look up The Destroyer either. I guess I was just wondering and assuming you knew all the dirt on the dude because you do tend to know. :)

Really odd color and design choices on him. I guess it was the times. Nowadays he'd be covered in belts, straps and pouches.

I 'hear' Mel Brooks when I read Hitler's dialog there.