The League of Ridiculous Villains, Part Three
I know a pretty high percentage of Spider-Man foes have been animal-themed, but the Kangaroo, from Amazing Spider-Man #81, February 1970, has to be one of the all-time worst. Against a guy with the speed, strength, and smarts of Spider-Man, you’ve either got have some serious power of your own, or be crafty enough to manipulate circumstances so that Spidey doesn’t just swing up and punch your face in. Kangaroo had no super powers and, to make matters worse, didn’t have much in the way of brains either. His “master plan” consisted of stealing a case just because there were armed guards protecting it. The case contained deadly experimental bacteria but, figuring it was “jewels or something”, this loser just stuffed into his fur vest and started pulling other strong-arm robberies. The only reason Spidey didn’t totally hammer this idiot was because he afraid of accidentally opening the bacteria vial.
On top of all that, Kangaroo’s origin takes the cake, or should I say, vegemite sandwich. He was (no fooling!) an Australian who used to spend his vacations in the outback studying kangaroos…living where kangaroos lived, eating what kangaroos ate, traveling where kangaroos went, drinking what kangaroos drank, pooping where kangaroos pooped, etc. Exactly why he did this is never stated, but, in some twisted comic book way, all this kangaroo time made him really, really strong and able to bounce around like Skippy from that old TV show. By that line of reasoning, I should have become fluent in Spanish by now from having tacos every Tuesday night for dinner!
I know a pretty high percentage of Spider-Man foes have been animal-themed, but the Kangaroo, from Amazing Spider-Man #81, February 1970, has to be one of the all-time worst. Against a guy with the speed, strength, and smarts of Spider-Man, you’ve either got have some serious power of your own, or be crafty enough to manipulate circumstances so that Spidey doesn’t just swing up and punch your face in. Kangaroo had no super powers and, to make matters worse, didn’t have much in the way of brains either. His “master plan” consisted of stealing a case just because there were armed guards protecting it. The case contained deadly experimental bacteria but, figuring it was “jewels or something”, this loser just stuffed into his fur vest and started pulling other strong-arm robberies. The only reason Spidey didn’t totally hammer this idiot was because he afraid of accidentally opening the bacteria vial.
On top of all that, Kangaroo’s origin takes the cake, or should I say, vegemite sandwich. He was (no fooling!) an Australian who used to spend his vacations in the outback studying kangaroos…living where kangaroos lived, eating what kangaroos ate, traveling where kangaroos went, drinking what kangaroos drank, pooping where kangaroos pooped, etc. Exactly why he did this is never stated, but, in some twisted comic book way, all this kangaroo time made him really, really strong and able to bounce around like Skippy from that old TV show. By that line of reasoning, I should have become fluent in Spanish by now from having tacos every Tuesday night for dinner!
DC’s lamester this go ‘round is the Cannoneer from The Brave and the Bold #77, May 1968. This guy’s shtick was to load himself into a cannon and have his assistant, Dum Dum, fire him “halfway across the city” through the exact window of the room from which he wanted to steal. I don’t know why his toady was called Dum Dum, the guy had to be some kind of ballistics super genius to pull that crap off! Also assisting the Cannoneer was “beautiful circus midget” Lilli de la Pooche. He gave her a pill that shrunk her down to a few inches tall, mainly it seems to give Batman’s team-up partner of the month, the Atom, something to do while Bats battled Cannoneer and Dum Dum. For the record, Cannoneer actually managed to KO Batman in a one-on-one fight (Bats of course bounced back and won in the end), and Lilli and Atom’s fight featured such out of the ordinary (for a comic book super brawl) weapons as a yoyo, perfume atomizer (no pun intended), a wax flower, and a powder puff (wielded, surprisingly, by Atom not Lilli!). If Cannoneer, Lilli or Dum Dum ever showed up in another comic, I’m not aware of it.
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