As we all know, Hostess was quite nearly no more, and an odd tradition of comics has nearly died with it.
If you grew up reading old comics, or were actually around when comics were published in the ’70s, you probably fondly remember the Hostess ads seemingly every single comic publisher ran.
The premise of these things was usually pretty simple: The hero finds some villain the bullpen threw together in five minutes (like Daredevil hunting down “Peachy Keen”) and then takes him out not by punching him or using superpowers, but rather by throwing mass-produced pastries at them. Occasionally, a bloodthirsty villain would find themselves unable to resist the allure of corn syrup and “creme” filling.
They were kind of condescending and ridiculous even to eight-year-olds, but they were insanely popular: There are versions from just about every comic book publisher remotely active in the ’70s, and they’re such a part of comics fandom that they’re still getting parodied.
And they deserve it. To demonstrate the point, we’ve put together a brief gallery of these nostalgic cheesefests, along with commentary.
Yeah, because getting your ass kicked by the Abomination, that can be solved with fruit filling.
Hey, remember the ’70s, when the Joker didn’t just murder everybody?
“And now Iceman can beat him with a pipe for stealing his shtick!”
“The Demolition Derby?” What, did the Big Wheel subcontract out his hits on Rocket Racer, and the Kangaroo just wasn’t available?
“Hey, you know that guy with all that advanced weaponry? LET’S DRIVE A TANK AT HIM! HE TOTALLY CAN’T FIGHT A TANK!”
So where does Cap keep these, exactly?
So, the Thing is fighting a robot… that can digest food… that was built by aliens… who are also Druids.
So the Cosmic Cube is… Wait, what the hell is it doing to that Twinkie? What the hell did I just read?!
Man, standards for astronauts really went to hell after the moon landing.
Hey, I wonder if there was a new type of Hostess fruit pie they were introducing.
