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Marvel’s Damage Control #1 (Adam F. Goldberg, Hans Rodionoff, Will Robson, Ruth Redmond, and VC’s Clayton Cowles) is jam-packed with references to Marvel continuity. With appearances by everybody from one-off joke characters like Jerry The Accountant to basic characters like Swamp Thing and Medusa, the difficulty plumbs the depths of comics historical past in its journey by means of Damage Controls mailroom. However, essentially the most obscure reference within the story seems in title solely.
The situation opens with the brand new Damage Control intern, Gus, being briefed on the group by the unique Damage Control intern, Bart Rozum. Soon Gus has his first job within the mailroom, delivering mail throughout the multidimensional workplaces of Damage Control. With the assistance of Nightcrawler’s teleportation, he will get all the pieces delivered other than one envelope. A memo addressed to an underwriter and failure to ship this memo ends in the near-annihilation of Earth. Who is that this underwriter, who holds in his hand the destiny of the world? It is one Stanley Forbush.
While that is the primary time Stanley has appeared in Marvel, the title Forbush has an extended historical past within the comics. The first Marvel creation to bear the title was Irving Forbush. Like his relation, Irving first appeared by title alone. He was created by Stan Lee not within the pages of some thrilling Golden Age journey however as a part of a really short-lived ebook entitled ‘Snafu’. Snafu, first printed in 1955, was a satirical comedian written by Stan Lee, within the vein of Mad Magazine. The fictional Irving Forbush was named because the journal’s founder. The ebook solely ran for 3 points nonetheless, earlier than lack of curiosity noticed it canceled. Irving Forbush disappeared, solely to reappear in an equally surprising place.
Forbush was subsequent talked about within the weekly Bullpen Bulletins that appeared behind Marvel’s mainline comics. As a part of Lee’s recurring “Stan’s Soapbox” column, the comics’ legend launched readers to a low-level Marvel workplace worker who might by no means get something proper, not in contrast to Damage Control’s ill-fated Gus. Irving Forbush appeared on this column any time Lee wanted somebody to be the butt of a joke, but it surely wasn’t till 1967 that readers received to truly see the character.
Not Brand Echhs #5 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Tom Sutton, and Artie Simek) launched the world to Forbush Man, an ex-Marbel Comics’ (Earth-665’s parody model of Marvel Comics) worker turned superhero. Here, Irving Forbush was an atypical workplace intern till his aunt slammed a cooking pot onto his head, remodeling him into Forbush Man. Irving Forbush adventured all through Marvel’s comedy titles, showing in a number of Not Brand Echhs tales in addition to the “What If…?” parody collection “What The –?!” He even discovered his means into the mainstream Marvel universe, showing in Warren Ellis’ Nextwave and in Deadpool: Too Soon, wherein he’s murdered by a shadow demon and subsequently resurrected.
It’s not Irving who is called in Damage Control, nonetheless, however his relative Stanley. Stanley hasn’t appeared in comics earlier than, but it surely’s clear that his title is a tribute to Forbush Man’s creator, Stan Lee. This is not the primary time Marvel has linked the character to his creator. Lee makes cameos as a police officer in every of the Netflix-Marvel TV Shows. Eagle-eyed viewers who caught sight of the character’s ID Badge observed that this character was named Captain Irving Forbush.
This is not the primary time a relative of Irving’s has appeared in comics both. Though short-lived, the parody journal Snafu additionally launched Irving’s cousin Marvin Forbush. Perhaps Stanley is one other cousin, or maybe, given the size of time that has handed, Stanley is Irving or Marvin’s son. While the Forbushes have been absent from Marvel for a while, Damage Control is the proper place to reintroduce them.
Whether within the pages of the Bullpen Bulletin or in Not Brand Echhs, Irving and his brethren symbolize a aspect of Marvel prepared to poke enjoyable at itself, to take itself rather less significantly. Recent years have seen this facet of the corporate take a again seat to it is extra straight-faced aspect, however the reintroduction of Damage Control sees a return of this fun-loving a part of Marvel, and the Forbush legacy deserves to be part of that.
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