The Bucky Clause

Welcome to Part 4 of Spidey-man Vs Gnatman and Rotten!

How crazy am I?

Well by now you know that I am crazy enough to be in the madhouse

The

But you could also say I am crazy enough to start climbing the walls…!

As of course this panel shows Gnatman and Rotten performing the age old clichéd it-was-in-almost-every-single-episode-of-the-Batman Tv show sideways wall climb…

But wait a minute they are called the Dyspeptic Duo… so what does THAT mean?!

How about this :- "affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function"!

A lot like me then, and just like me they are climbing the walls, which anyone over the age of 6 knows is done by simply turning the tv camera sideways so the "wall" is in fact the floor

Which is fine for Adam West and Burt Ward, but rather difficult for anyone doing the equally overused "window cameo" just like JJJ is here

What window cameos you say… okay you asked for it!

Oh I before I forget - we finally get to see the "Nut in a red cape" (AKA Superman) that Jimmy Olsen referred to a few pages back!

NEXT!

Well Gnatman IS a Beatnik  - apparently - well okay the TV show was from that era and very much inspired by it - so thats all cool, daddy-o!

But here we go we have a bunch of lawyers drawing up a contract

Not just any old lawyers though, but Flee Bailey and Melvin Belly tipping their hats

Who - ahem - allegedly  - could be F. Lee Bailey (Francis Lee Bailey Jr.) and Melvin Belli (Melvin Mouron Belli) who was both very famous lawyers

Melvin Belli was also possibly more "famous" (or at least recognised) for his role as "Gorgan" in the classic Star Trek Episode "And the Children Shall Lead"

To tip the hat to the comic book reader, Marvels own comic book based lawyers Matt Murdock (AKA Daredevil) and Franklin "Foggy" Nelson also directly face the audience and tip their hats

Well this can only be a reference to how legally challenging even doing this complete parody must have been, let alone the actual authorised crossovers

As in the next page we see a contract that is literally on a massive scroll with no end of words with the three lawyers smiling like jackals while JJJ signs without actually reading its contents…

- Wait a minute - someone signing a Byzantine contact without reading it completely - that can't go well, right?!

NEXT!

But the contact is signed and gnat man now has to get rid of spidey man - looks like gnat man got the raw end of the deal - right…?

We will see…

However before we go lets focus on little Rotten in the previous panel

Here Rotten is reading a comic, but curiously NOT a parody comic but an actual real Marvel title with the title and characters properly named

No "Tales of Suspenders with Chaplain America and Ironed Man" here

And Rotten (much like me) can't resist on making a totally meta-ironic statement about "Icky teenage sidekicks" which - well lets face it, is exactly what Rotten himself would be (to any other kid)

If critiquing another comic within a comic, about a specific character issue using another character with the exact same issues was not enough, let's flash back to the splash page which declared (in a little tiny sign) "Bucky Lives"

Again not the parody name - which I think was "Bunky"… but another direct reference to James Buchanan Barnes

Who indeed was NOT actually dead as anyone who has read Ed Brubakers run on Captain America will know and for those who did not Bucky "returned" in 2005

Again I can only come to the conclusion that Marie Severin IS physic

Though to be fair apparently there was such as thing as "The Bucky Clause" which was that in comics, "No one stays dead except Bucky, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben"

Well thats not the case either!!!

NEXT WEEK :- The Battle Royale (Or is that a battle for the royale (with cheese))

of Spidey man vs Gnat man and Rotten begins and more inappropriate Dc references than you can shake a cease and deist notice at!