Introduction:
*I1: The Indiana State Fair usually takes place throughout the second and third weeks of August.
*I1: First appearance of Charles Hopkins II.
*I1: The T-shirt Chuck dons is a DC Flash T-shirt.
*I2: First appearance of Kyle Reeser.
*I2: Kyle would be wearing his trademark Superman shirt seen at other IRL events such as Halloween and Kyle's high school graduation.
*I3: First appearance of Joe Faust.
*I3: Despite his love of comics, Joe does not own a relative T-shirt to match the others and IRL has borrowed Kyle's Green Lantern shirt on the few occasions agreed upon to match.
*I4: First occurrence in a long line of Joe smoking a cigarette.
Chapter One:
*Title: The title is a preface of the famous saying which is concluded in TNS.
*I3: Joe has used numerous reasons for smoking, but this is both new and irrefutable.
*II2: Despite being the youngest of the three, Joe tends to be more apt in making decisions.
*II5: No, he couldn't.
*II9: The Circus of Crime originated in the 1930's in Austria and eventually came to America while working for the Nazis to murder high government officials. Apparently sixty years of practice have built up to robbing people in the Midwest.
*II9: Though it is not revealed until TOS50, the trio is not in the Marvel Universe (reality 616) as Joe suspects, but a reality later dubbed Marvel-619.
*IV1: Chuck is arguably the most agile of the three and confident enough in that fact to make the leap.
*V1: First occurrence of what will become Kyle's most recognizable catchphrase.
*VIII1: First appearance of Talula Baird.
*VIII2: The surprise stems from the fact that the purse has a brick in it as shown in TOS1X2.
*IX1: When the Ringmaster is not leading the Circus of Crime, The Clown is usually next in line for leadership.
*XI2: In the original typing of The Story, uses of the hypnosis effect were represented in boldface type. When transferred over, use of multi-color print was swapped out with green representing the most noticeable color of the Ringmaster's jacket..
*XII2: While inferred throughout The Story, it is important to note that Joe Faust has an intrinsic almost encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel Universe. This comes into play in a number of ways, but most importantly the knowledge of how most of the equipment and paraphernalia operates.
*XII2: Distinguished Competition = DC.
*XIII2: The Ringmaster's jacket, later dubbed the Hypno-Jacket, is the first article that Joe scavenges from another character.
Villains defeated by Chuck: 1 (this Chapter - Ernesto)
Villains defeated by Kyle: 1 (this Chapter - python)
Villains defeated by Joe: 4 (this Chapter - Ringmaster, Princess Python, Luigi, the Clown)
Chapter Two:
*Title: This is a play on both the guest star's name as well as reference to the first sign that the trio are unable to get home that easily.
*I4&5: This is the first occurrence of what will be an ongoing struggle throughout of Charles' interest in remaining in the Marvel Universe and Joe's desire to return home.
*I5: Joe is referring here to Northstar who, at the time, was the only openly homosexual superhero. Joe eventually meets up with Northstar in TNS48, but it doesn't work out as well as he'd hoped.
*I11: The fourth wall is the imaginary wall at the front of a stage in a theater and later adapted to refer to the boundary between the audience and the fiction. Breaking the fourth wall refers to the fictional characters acknowledge the audience as seen in such things as Malcolm in the Middle, Spaceballs, and numerous other pieces.
*I19: All three guys are easily capable of doing addition of numbers in their head. This really isn't that pertinent until TOS50.
*II1: Fortunately, Joe does a good enough job explaining the fabric of reality, so it doesn't need to be reiterated here.
*II1: Access was created during the Marvel vs. DC storyline as a conduit between the two comic universes.
*II2: The locales mentioned here would be revisited again in TOS30, TNS12, TSQ, TOS26, and a close enough approximation in TNS52.
Villains defeated by Chuck: 1
Villains defeated by Kyle: 1
Villains defeated by Joe: 4
Chapter Three:
*I1: Technically, Joe was the only one who fought a supervillain - the Ringmaster with his hypnotic hat and jacket. While the Clown, Princess Python, and the Gambonno brothers are certainly villainous, they lack magical or superhuman powers or the intellect to draft complex schemes.
*I3: IRL Chuck picked up the nickname "Lucky" in college and has had knacks for randomly coming across useful things, escaping danger, and generally having things work out in his favor. It could be theorized that it's this natural tendency that let him survive the accident in TOS4.
*I9: In 2009, the cab fare in New York for six blocks plus tip is actually around $6. However, the economy in the Marvel Universe is greatly skewed. Of course, it could also be a New York cabbie hustling some out-of-towners.
*II2: During high-school, Joe and Chuck IRL got roped into playing Pictionary against a classmate and residential counselor. Despite an overwhelming lead, Joe continuously strove to throw the other team off by yelling out nonsensical answers which peaked at calling out "Nova Scotia" repeatedly at a drawing of circular scribbles. This carried on to the idea that one would demonstrate Nova Scotia by randomly twirling your pointer finger.
*III5: In the movie, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson are two lovers who, through hypnosis, remember their past lives and the mystery surrounding their brutal deaths.
*III7: As far as can be determined, this phrase first appeared during the TV series "The A-Team" but grew into popularity in the early 90's with the animated series "Tiny Toons" and has appeared in a number of television episodes and movies since.
*III17: Part of the ongoing joke with Kyle in TOS is how easily he is dismissed by Joe and Chuck.
*IV3: At the end of the "Argument Clinic" skit in Monty Python's Flying Circus, Michael Palin enters a room with Terry Jones who is giving "Being Hit on the Head Lessons" and informs Palin that one does not holler "ow" but "waaah" while clutching the top of the head.
*IV7: After ingesting large amounts of sugar or caffeine, Beavis takes on the persona of Cornholio and frequently repeats monosyllabic sounds or words in an undetermined South American accent.
*V1: Besides being the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange actually holds a medical doctorate and held a five year residency at New York Hospital.
*V2: The choice of books in the library stems from the play off of Dr. Strange's name, the eponymous name of a magician, and one of Joe's favorite books.
*V2: The jewelry Joe slides onto his little finger will be revealed to be the Ring of Hoggoth's Unbending Will in just a few more paragraphs and becomes the second piece of equipment that he will wield.
*V4: Sarah Strange attended the same high school as our three heroes IRL.
*V9: For someone who has obtained the title "Sorcerer Supreme", Strange loses chunks of his powers on numerous occasions. My guess is this occurs after his return from the War of the Seven Spheres which happened just after he was at one of his weakest points.
*V17: Which is fortunate when Joe is physically stripped of all of his gear down the line in TOS34.
Villains defeated by Chuck: 1
Villains defeated by Kyle: 1
Villains defeated by Joe: 4
Chapter Four:
*I1: While it never made it to print, it was intended to be shown in the spin-off "Colin: The Lost Supercool" that Bill Schofeld had previously been very successful in life and through a series of horrible events managed to lose everything within 24 hours of his appearance here.
*I2: The Frightful Four's original lineup consisted of the Wizard, Sandman, Paste-Pot Pete (later, and thankfully, renamed the Trapster), and Medusa. The linup has changed over twice that of the Fantastic Four with over 20 different villains taking spots, but with the Wizard always being one of them.
*I6: Despite the fact that the Trapster is one of the most laughable supervillains around, he does bring up excellent points - not only here, but in the future as well as seen in TNS
*I9: If the search engine "Google" is to be believed, this is the only occurrence of the phrase "Sinister Quadrilateral" throughout the entire internet.
*I11: Trapster and Titania's exchange came during the Acts of Vengeance when supervillains "switched partners" and fought heroes other than their normal targets. The two came into some dispute while taking on Spider-Man.
*I16: Trapster is correct. Alliteration is the use of repetitive consonant sounds at the beginning of words within close proximity to each other. Assonance is the same but with vowel sounds.
*I22: I think he should ask Namor, Luke Cage, Dr. Doom and Black Tom Cassidy about that.
*I25: The "Terrifying Mitch" joke without doubt ranks as one of the top five best creations. So much that it resurfaces in TOS47 and again in TNS54.
*II1: Actual fare plus tip would be about $11. The ratio similarities to that of TOS3I9 would thusly indicate that the Marvel Universe economy is skewed to be about two and a half times more expensive than our reality and gives us more assurance with the honesty of Marvel cab drivers.
*II2: It was actually the seventh incarnation of the Masters of Evil, led by the Crimson Cowl that took out the Fantastic Four's headquarters.
*III1: The Negative Zone is actually another universe composed of oppositely charged particles (positrons, antineutrinos, and antiprotons) and lies adjacent to all other universes. The portal that Joe mentions is actually a distortion area that covers matter to anti-matter and vice-versa while moving between the Marvel Universe and the Negative Zone.
*III2: "Build Me Up Buttercup" was a one-hit wonder for the Foundations, coming in at #21 on the Billboard charts in 1969. It becomes the unofficial theme song for the Supercools for no other reason than it being a fun, upbeat song.
*V1: The bulk of the Ringmaster's hypnotic ability lies within the hat. The coat is only strong enough to give unwilling people a suggestive nudge to do something that they might have decided to do anyway.
*V3: Had the Wizard put his genius level intellect to research as opposed to construction, he might have realized that the portal, itself, acts as a Anti-Matter/Matter Converter.
*VI1: During the first several chapters, Joe noted that he did not plan ahead and simply wrote whatever came out. However, he quickly realized that there was no feasible way for the trio to take down Hydroman and had to bring in a little help.
*VI2: In 1993, the musician Prince changed his name to a symbol, in theory, to shorten it. He then became known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince which is five times as long.
*VI4: One tenth of an ounce of antimatter would react with an equal amount of matter which would result in an explosion of upwards of 120 kilotons - ten times the strength of the atomic bombs dropped during World War II.
*VI4: The Wonder Glove becomes the third gadget Joe takes.
*VI6: It is later revealed in TOS50 that the Wizard's Wonder Gloves work in pairs and that while functioning independent from each other, it only has enough power stored to fire 100 blasts. Now's the time to start keeping track if your keen on that type of thing.
*VI6: Off-screen, after this chapter, Joe also takes the time to relieve the Trapster of his Paste Vest, making it the fourth object in Joe's ever-growing arsenal.
*VII5: It will be noted several times later, but this is a good time to lay down the fact that Chuck's hands are now twin portals that link to the Negative Zone, similar to the Fantastic Four's portal. If his hands were actual Negative Zone, they would immediately explode and take out a lot of the East Coast.
*VII9: This is not only a good note of the ridicule that Kyle frequently will take on, but it is more importantly the origin point of his future codename. The phrase stems from lame put downs given to others in high school that involved adding the word "boy" to the end of a descriptive name or phrase introduced in a preceded question. For instance, "Why are you walking down the hall, Walking-Down-the-Hall Boy?"
*VII10: This is another example of the narrator having self-awareness of The Story going on. At this point, there was no concept that it would extend as long as it did and become an actual literary piece and thus did not take things too seriously.
*VII15: The barrier that is Chuck's hands will always freely allow energy of any wavelengths to pass through it; however, it keeps solid matter from automatically passing through - which allows Chuck to pick things up still. However, that field can be relaxed enough at will so it may pass through. In the beginning, he does not have enough control to fully convert matter over, and it is thus destroyed.
*VIII4: In the 1995 movie Mallrats, Jason Lee plays Brodie Bruce who is a comic aficionado with an unusual interest in superhero sex organs. At one point, he poses the question to Stan Lee whether The Thing's dork is made out of orange rock like the rest of his body.
*VIII6: Unfortunately, for Joe, it will be a while. Fortunately, that mental picture saves their lives next chapter.
*IX8: While Joe and Chuck are both big fans of Marvel Comics (and Kyle a fan of DC), Joe's interest leans heavily toward the Avengers and Chuck toward the X-Men.
*IX10: As noted in TOS1, Joe is kind of a pushover, and despite being completely miserable, he still tries to help his friends.
*IX12: The Pogo Plane is a jet the size of a jet, which "hops" into orbit around the Earth, then comes back down someplace far away and is used to quickly cover vast distances. Taking a Pogo Plane from Pier Four to Central Park would be like hopping a train from the living room to the bathroom. The vehicle they actually take is the "flying bathtub," the Fantasticar.
Villains defeated by Chuck: 2 (this Chapter - The Wizard)
Villains defeated by Kyle: 1
Villains defeated by Joe: 6 (this Chapter - Trapster, Terrifying Mitch)
Chapter Five:
Title: This is a reference to Joe's traumatic viewing of Ben Grimm's penis last chapter.
*I2-5: While disputed heavily throughout IRL, here is strong evidence indicating that Joe is the leader of the group.
*I8: This phrase is said emphatically and strung together. It's hard to say where it originated but was frequently used IRL for humorous effect.
*II4: Fred J. Dukes' catchphrase is normally used to point out his mutant power which makes him a nearly immovable object. Naturally, Joe had to find a way to put a twist on it.
*II11: "Hit them while they're distracted" comes from an IRL Marvel RPG in which Charles Bailey, when confronted by the announcement, "Oh my god, they've killed Professor Xavier" quickly retorted, "Oh yeah, that's nothing. We killed TWO Professor Xavier's while you weren't looking." This line was enough to stun even the GM of the game into confusion at which point Bailey instructed everyone to attack with the above line.
*IV2-4: Again from Marvel RPG played IRL, Charles Bailey delivered those exact lines after the villainous Pyro had been knocked unconscious.
*V2: This is the first appearance of what ends up being called "The Rage" which is the point where Kyle's rational mind snaps, and he becomes physically violent despite little physical capability.
*VIII2: U Can't Touch This was MC Hammer's biggest hit and was ranked #16 on VH1's list of 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's.
*VIII9: The first several chapters were written in the summer of 1997. Had it been a mere year later, Joe's line here would have inevitably been swapped out for the simpler and more fun to say: "Yoink!" - a word created by Simpsons write George Meyer in a few previous episodes but heavily pushed in the 1997-1998 season and used in almost a fourth of the episodes that year.
*IX1: The original concept behind the team name stemmed from the Jefferson Starship song "We Built This City" which Joe IRL originally thought had the line "Don't tell us you need us, 'cause we're the Supercools". It would not be until a year or so later that the line would be found to be "cause we're the ship of fools".
*IX1: This is also the point where the codenames were created, and they've pretty much kept since. Although his points of Mr. Negativity's powers well come back to do some damage in TOS34.
*IX2-3: IRL, the guys came up with real life superpowers such as the ones listed here as well as things like "phasing through air", "gradually shapeshifting into an old man", and "being able to see into the present in the immediate vicinity".
*IX15: Kyle's right, but it won't be until TOS7. This also represents the first time the three guys aren't together for any decent length of time.
Interlude:
*I8: There are actually a number of people who all work as Scourge doing vigilante work of killing supervillains, such as Enforcer, Miracle Man, Hate-Monger, Megatek, Melter, Death Adder, Blue Streak, and numerous others.
Villains defeated by Chuck: 3 (this Chapter - Pyro)
Villains defeated by Kyle: 3 (this Chapter - Phantasia, Blob)
Villains defeated by Joe: 9 (this Chapter - Mastermind, Toad, Blob)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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