Consider a character who can either defy death or, to put it another way, simply cannot die. Next, it can recover from virtually any type of injury; for example, it can withstand atomic blasts as well as full-power hits, and not just from anyone but Ragnarök, Thor’s cyborg clone. If that is not enough, the character is also capable of creating whatever weapon he desires.
All he needs to do is picture the type of weapon he wants and voilà! He can see it there in front of him. Say welcome to Slapstick, everyone! For those of you who are curious about the name, he looks like an animated clown with all of the skills of a slapstick cartoon figure. He can also distort reality to make it look like an animated cartoon.
The character of Slapstick was created by writer Len Kaminski and artist James Fry and first appeared in a four-issue limited series called The Awesome Slapstick in 1992. Following that, the character appeared alongside the New Warriors in the American comic book anthology series Marvel Comics Presents, followed by a regular appearance as a recruit in Avengers: The Initiative.
In 2015, the character became a regular member of the fictitious superhero mercenary team Mercs for Money, but it was not until two years later that he received his second solo series, which lasted six issues and was written by the fantastic trio of Reilly Brown, Fred Ven Lente, and Diego Olortegui.
So get ready for today’s video, in which we will discuss Slapstick, alias Steven Windsor McCay Hardmon, and go over the character’s origins in detail, as he is often referred to as Marvel’s version of the Joker. Are you prepared? So, let us get started!
Slapstick Issue #1 – The Hero Who Laughs At Danger!
Meet Steve Harmon, the protagonist of the story – a difficult child for sure and right from the very beginning. When we say beginning, we’d like to stress on the fact that his mother actually went into labor for 86 straight hours. As Steve starts growing up, his parents do their very best to cope. They bring him indestructible toys thinking that he will be able to play with it longer only to realize that he is using the very indestructible toy to destroy the rest of his toys. Speaking of his activities at school, Steve prefers to re-interpret assignments in the most literal way, something that to an extent displayed his own talented self.
Now coming back to the present day, it is another regular day in chemistry class. Steve’s at his usual being the classic class clown either daydreaming or telling the most pathetic of jokes. He is seen telling a rather tasteless joke to one of his classmates when someone pokes fun at him and calls him from behind. It’s his arch-rival, Don Winston, who mockingly asks him about his detention.
Of course, Steve blames Winston for it and swears revenge on him. Later, on his way back home, he gets an invitation to a strange, new carnival from a man who appears to have dressed up as a clown. Thinking it is his best opportunity to get back at Winston, he decides to attend the carnival in the guise of a clown.
At the carnival, Steve is able to locate Winston who has come there with his date, Heather. But before he is able to enact his plan of taking revenge, Steve sees Winston and Heather getting dragged inside the ‘House of Mirrors’ by a group of clowns. Steve decides to follow them inside and goes after them.
That is where the readers along with Steve learn how the carnival was nothing but a trap created mainly by the evil clowns from Dimension X. The purpose of the carnival was to kidnap ‘human specimens’, bring them to Dimension X for study, and have the Overlord eventually begin an invasion of Earth.
As Steve discreetly listens to their conversation in horror, one of the clowns activates the Dimensional portal and suddenly, the Funhouse Mirror alters into a portal to a mysterious, alien world. Seeing his friends getting dragged into the magic mirror portal, Steve is able to make his way inside a split second before the portal closes. Right when he enters, a burst of energy races across and alerts the senses of Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Silver Surfer, and Howard the Duck.
Coming back to Steve, the molecules in his body get stretched across 3741 dimensions and he lands in Dimension X, initially in the domain of the Scientist Supreme. The scientist saves Steve and helps him master his new form, which happens to be a body made up of living unstable molecules that the scientist addresses as the indestructible ‘electroplasm’.
The scientist tells him about the evil Overlord, how he took over Dimension X and let him live only in the hopes of having him invent something useful for it was the scientist who had inadvertently created the device that made the Overlord’s conquest possible in the first place. The scientist then tells Steve about the functions of the Psycho-Radiatomic Mediocritizer and how it lets him have control over everybody and also their reality in Dimension X.
Steve also learns about the future plans of the Overlord, one who has plans of conquering Earth by first kidnapping the humans from there, then brainwashing them using the Mediocritizer and, eventually, sending them back to prepare for his invasion. With the scientist giving Steve a run-through of his new powers and apparently suffering a heart attack, Steve takes the former’s secret map to free the enslaved ‘earthlings’ from the evil clowns as well as the Overlord.
All this while, the sole objective of the Overlord has been to conquer Earth just the way he has been able to conquer the minds of the humans. With Steve reaching the Overlord’s throne room following the map, he puts up a brilliant fight against the evil clowns.
The agitated Overlord tries to use the Mediocritizer against Steve but it simply has no effect on the latter. Instead, Steve ends up using full advantage of his indestructible body along with a mallet that he had brought along with him from the carnival to smash the device. This results in the destruction of the mechanism, which suspends disbelief thereby making the humans get back control of their minds.
The castle crashes and Steve asks everyone to head toward the portal. The captured humans run towards the portal followed by the evil clowns but Steve is fast enough to hammer down the mirror using the mallet. Doing this wipes out the clown’s influence on reality.
Later, Steve is found by Mike Peterson, his best friend from school, to whom he narrates the whole incident. Mike tells him his character just had an origin and that he should make use of his powers to fight crime. With the duo deciding on a cool name, Steve comes up with the name, Slapstick.
Slapstick Issue #2 – It’s Time To Get Hammered!
It just goes without saying that with his newfound ‘awesome’ powers, Slapstick’s surely having a ball of a time. Interestingly, he also has his best friend Mike assisting him and making sure that he stays out of trouble. When Mike reminds him of a term paper that has to be submitted the next day, Slapstick’s initially in no mood for that but then he eventually changes back to his normal human self by using the transformation inducer in his regulator gloves.
Both of them start preparing themselves for the exam when they get interrupted by a phone call from Syd, who happens to be Steve’s favorite high school informant. She invites the boys to the mall to which Steve happily agrees. At the mall, Steve spots his crush Barb Halsey and literally starts drooling over her. While it is pretty clear that Steve has an insane crush on Barb, Syd is pretty much attracted to Steve. The gang heads over to McRonalds’ to grab a bite.
It’s quite crowded in there and a burger lands right on their face of Steve from a table filled with kids. Of course, Steve’s highly annoyed and he decides to teach them a lesson. He goes to the washroom and changes himself to Slapstick.
The scene next moves to a guy loaded with weapons in a forest not too far away from the mall. He has a giant Mutant Detector in his hand and it is clear that he is on the lookout for mutants. But at the same time, our guy also seems to be a bit lost in his own thoughts. The readers are taken to a flashback; we see the same guy enjoying a quiz show on the tv when all of a sudden, his favorite television show gets interrupted because of a special report in regards to the X-Men.
Because he never got to see the rest of that episode, he swore vengeance and simply started to hunt and kill mutants. Cut to the present, the guy’s Mutant Detector picks up the presence of a mutant nearby and has no points for guessing where the mutant is. The mall of course! He starts heading in that direction and random thoughts of destroying the mall in order to save it cross his mind too.
Meanwhile, Steve makes his way back inside McRonalds as Slapstick, walks towards the kids’ table, and interrupts the birthday party. While the rest of the children are initially amazed to see him, Slapstick eventually scares the shit out of them. As for the mutant hunter, he comes face to face with Slapstick.
Screaming, ‘Die Mutant Scum’, he begins to fire at him. This comes as a complete shock to Slapstick and he demands to know who the guy is. The readers get to know that he is regarded as ‘The Overkiller Mutant Murderizer’ but the guy addresses himself as Slapstick’s ‘worst nightmare’. Slapstick confirms that he is no mutant but Overkiller is simply in no mood to pay heed to his words. He starts shooting at him again and engages himself in a crazy war with the indestructible Slapstick. Of course, this pisses off Slapstick to greater extents and he starts hitting back.
Now, it so happens that Peter Parker is also at the same mall with MJ, and with his spider-sense tingling, he decides to check things out. Donning his Spider-Man attire, he webs up his automatic camera in the hopes of catching some real action. Meanwhile, at the other end of the mall, Overkiller and Slapstick are still engaged in a massive heated-up fight.
The mall is literally destroyed, thanks to the relentless battle between the duo. Having no other options left, Slapstick is forced to end the fight by kissing Overkiller and then hammering him down with his mallet. When Spider-Man finally makes an appearance there, a beyond irritated Slapstick acts way too cool in front of him. Later, when Mike asks Steve if he really got to meet Spider-Man, Steve revels in the fact that it was the other way around.
By the end of the issue, the readers get to realize who the real mutant is. It’s the birthday boy Oliver Denton from McRonalds, whom Overkiller’s Mutant Detector had previously sensed. To the world, Denton might look like an eight-year-old boy but in reality, he is a mutant genius of unparalleled magnitude and he surely has his own plans.
Slapstick Issue #3 – He Lives. He Conquers. Bullets Can’t Stop Him!
Steve’s busy daydreaming about his crush Barb Halsey in the class when the professor catches him red-handed. When he is unable to tell the right answer, the professor has him sent to the assistant principal’s office. Suddenly, Barb appears in front of him, this time for real, and says hi to him. Well, of course, Steve is shocked initially. He can’t come in terms with the fact that she would remember him in the first place.
Nonetheless, post-school he decides to call her up and he finally musters up the courage to do so. Barb tells him that she is babysitting that night and asks him to come over. Steve races to the address given by Barbara and the readers are taken right in front of the Denton Residence! He knocks at the door to get greeted by a humongous-looking guy with kisses all over his face. Barb introduces him as his boyfriend, Vinnie, much to his shock of Steve and also tells him that she wasn’t expecting him to be there so soon. Steve, dejected and embarrassed, make up a story and leaves.
Denton, on the other hand, is literally on the verge of making history upstairs in his room. There are no second thoughts about the mutant child displaying exceeding levels of intelligence. So much so that he actually ends up building a giant, unstoppable, rampaging android warrior, calling it his greatest creation and naming it Teddy.
Vinnie turns out to be Teddy’s first victim and under the command of Denton, Barb is next in line but Denton wishes to make her his queen so he simply commands Teddy to seize her. Unfortunately for Denton, Steve wasn’t too far away when he heard Barb scream in horror. He rushes back to the Denton Residence to check on her and post witnessing Denton along with his latest creation, he alters himself to Slapstick.
Denton orders Teddy to obliterate Slapstick and the blow that our hero receives from the android killer lands him unconscious. Slapstick wakes up to find himself tied on a surgery bed and Denton running some tests on him. The tests look painful, even for our hero here but somehow every test ends up making him bigger and stronger. So much so that he actually ends up ripping apart the cuffs that were restraining him in the first place.
With Denton commanding Teddy to annihilate Slapstick, the latter gets beyond furious and ends up crushing the remote control that had been keeping the rampaging android under control all this while. Now, with the remote control gone, Teddy goes literally on a mindless rampage and starts attacking Slapstick fiercely. Denton’s left with no other options but to forcibly form a truce with Slapstick, even if that meant for a while. With the duo on one side and Teddy alone on the other, the android eventually gets destroyed.
Denton eventually got what he deserved – a good measure of spanking from Slapstick and speaking of our hero here, he finally got kissed by Barb. Later, with Denton’s parents arrived back home, Denton got what was due for him; a good share of scolding followed by a ban on particle physics experiments for the rest of the whole month.
The third issue ends with the appearance of a vagrant, and not just any but one possessing the power to cause explosions.
Slapstick Issue #4 – All He Wanted Was A Cup Of Coffee!
Having gotten tired of being treated like he just isn’t here, the homeless man introduced in the end of the third issue starts causing explosions. Going by the name, the Neutron Bum, all he wants is some money to have a cup of coffee. Deny him that and you get blown.
Steve’s out on the streets enjoying with his gang when they suddenly hear a loud explosion taking place. ‘Thoom’, there goes a second one and this time louder than the one before. Mike tells Steve to change into Slapstick and do something about it but looking at Steve, he is clearly not in the mood to ‘use his powers for good’, ‘help people’ or even ‘fight crime’ for that matter. It is only after there’s a third explosion and the local Tower Records gets blown away that he decides to check things out.
He alters to his Slapstick personality and comes face to face with the perpetrator, who is currently charging a hundred thousand bucks for a cup of coffee. The Neutron Bum attempts to blow up Slapstick but alas, if only he could do so. This particular explosion gains the attention of several superheroes such as Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Speedball, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers along with the New Warriors, who immediately issue a priority alert on a code red situation.
Slapstick, on the other hand, is beyond furious and he has his reasons of course. Determined to make him suffer, he gets up to go after the vagrant but as fate would have it, he gets collided with Speedball. Meanwhile, even more, infuriated at the price of coffee, the Neutron Bum is taking it all out on the society randomly blowing up parts of the city. To him, the current price for a cup of coffee stands at one million bucks.
As Slapstick and Speedball make their way towards the chaos, they are met by Daredevil followed by the Ghost Rider. Slapstick is up to his usual antics; while he addresses Daredevil’s costume as the ugliest one that he has ever come across, he takes things a notch higher by pouring water on the Ghost Rider’s head. It goes without saying that ‘the spirit of vengeance’ is absolutely furious by his actions but because there are important things to be dealt with and innocent lives are literally at stake, he decides not to deal with Slapstick in his usual manner.
With more and more superheroes gathering together and thinking of ways to deal with the Neutron Bum, the professionals stop paying heed to what Slapstick has to say, even if it means that he has a solution in mind. Offended at their behavior, Slapstick decides to take matters in his own hands; heading straight to a diner, he orders a quick cup of coffee.
Next, he makes his way straight through the explosions caused by the vagrant and hands him the cup as a peace offering. As the Neutron Bum takes a sip and calls it a fine cup of hot coffee, Slapstick takes out his mallet from behind and hammers him down. Of course, the rest of the superheroes aren’t okay with that; according to them, sneaking up on a guy like that isn’t a fair thing to do but does that stop Slapstick from taking away the glory?
The job’s already done. The issue ends with Ben Grimm aka The Thing having had enough of Slapstick and giving the latter the kick of life. While Slapstick lands across town on a car, he says it’s not going to be so easy on their part to get rid of him that easily and promises to be back.
The Joker Vs Slapstick
Let’s get one thing, straight guys! If DC’s got Joker, Marvel’s got Slapstick!
While there’s no denying that the Joker conclusively happens to be the most celebrated infamous villain of DC, one that simply loves to torture and kill people for fun let’s not disregard the fact that Marvel has its own version of crazy too. Yes, we are categorically talking about Slapstick, who not only loves to get his hands dirty but also gets a major kick when it comes to punishing and bashing up people in his signature style of course. No points for guessing his mallet here.
If we look at the origin stories of both the characters here, you will agree with us when we tell you that the origin story of the Joker, especially how he turn into the Clown Prince of Crime still remains a mystery to date with parts of it being disclosed over the years of course. We know he fell into a container filled with corrosive chemicals, something eventually led to his skin turning white and hair green.
But, if we have to compare him to his Marvel clown counterpart, the Joker can be defeated, or in other words, be killed. Now, speaking of Marvel’s origin story, you know it’s crazy and it is right there in front of you. The whole thing of him following his arch-rival through a magical portal, then being regenerated by the Scientist Supreme of Dimension X, eventually understanding how to master his new cartoon body, the birth of his new name, and of course, the beginning of his responsibilities as a superhero, all of these are nothing short of a roller coaster ride.
Having said that, of course, there’s no one like The Joker and to be honest, Marvel’s Slapstick is even remotely as popular as his DC clown counterpart but hey, he is Slapstick and you just know there can’t be another one like him.
What Makes Slapstick So Insanely Dangerous?
Well, to begin with, it is his unstable molecule physiology that makes him indestructible while giving him the structure of a living cartoon. This means he can operate himself in the most outrageous manner possible. And, God forbid if he gets hit with electricity or says gets struck by lightning, it just makes him even more powerful, stronger and let’s not forget bigger.
His enemies have tried to burn him, smash him, shoot him, crush him and even twist him for that matter, yet, he has always managed to bounce back. Speaking of equipment, there are his gloves which have special devices. Next, comes his infinite pockets; his character is capable of carrying an infinite number of things inside his pockets and he will still not feel the weight of the things that he is carrying.
How cool is that, right? Then, there’s the hammer of course. Slapstick literally pulls out this giant-sized mallet from a subspace pocket in his right glove. Last but not the least, as a member of the Mercs for Money, his character was given a version of Deadpool’s suit and we all know what that means.