“Yesterday’s” Comic> Twisted Toyfare Theater volume 8

“You’re not still mad about being turned into a HISS tank, are you?” “Oh look, there’s a fly on your helmet.”

Twisted Toyfare Theater volume 8

Wizard (2008)

This is a collection of comedy strips that were published in Wizard magazine, done with action figures and diorama sets. I’m not going to do a deep review of any of the stories. There are too many and they’re too short. This is more an overview of the collected strips as a whole. The stories here are:

• “Trick Or Treat”: Reed leaves Hulk with Franklin and Power Pack (minus Alex, whom he mistakes for Franklin because they’re both blond) to take them trick or treating. Things go horribly wrong because Hulk is a moron in these stories…as is everybody else. That’s the running theme of these comics and I’m just not a fan of that style of humor.
• “Redneck Rhapsody”: Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Professor X, and I think Thor (they like Thor in drag for some reason) find their LARPing game interrupted by the Dukes Of Hazzard, who in this version are of course dumb hillbilly rednecks who watched Deliverance too many times. I wish this were the worst of the lot.
• “Death By Muppet”: If frat boys ran the Muppet Show. Special guest star: a black action figure pretending to be Damon Wayans.
• “Dome And Domer”: Mysterio decides to play David Blane and lock himself in a box as an illusion. It’s just a reason to do a bunch of short gags, and that’s also par for the course with these comics.
• “Deleted Scenes from Transformers: The Movie”: It’s a one page reenactment of Optimus Prime’s death and Ultra Magnus getting the Matrix Of Leadership. It’s one page too long.
• “Heroes From Fired!”: Iron Fist and Luke “Power Man” Cage lose their job as a print shop because they accepted a check from a time traveller. So they start Heroes For Hire and get some really bad clients. It was almost funny.
• “As The World Turnbuckles”: Why use a soap opera name for a WWF news parody bit? I wish it was the dumbest part but it has a running story of Vice-President Triple-H wrestling Vince McMahon for the Presidency and another of the Ultimate Warrior being nonsensical even for the Ultimate Warrior.
• “Walk Like A Man-Wolf”: It’s take your child to work day at the Daily Bugle so J. Jonah Jameson brings his son John, who is currently in his Man-Wolf form. It’s also almost funny, with the running gag of having the hero and villains who have worked at the paper there in costume and yet J.J. doesn’t recognize them as the villains. Best gag is Venom taking a picture of Spider-Man, who is across the desk, and Jameson not making the connection between Eddie, Peter, and their super counterparts.
• “Probes & Cons”: A stormtrooper sends probes all over the place, ending up in different works of fiction they have the toys for. It’s a premise that most of the time doesn’t live up to its potential.
• “Get Smart!”: I wish this book would…I mean, The Leader is tired of Hulk getting away with things so he makes an “anti-tard ray” so you know this story isn’t going to hold up to today’s alleged audience. This backfires as Hulk goes on an apology tour.
• “Sssuper-sssize Me!”: Remember that episode when Cobra creates a chain of fast food restaurants as part of their plan to defeat the Joes and take over the country? Watch that instead because this ruins the whole premise.
• “Cantina”: A Cheers parody for maybe a page and a half. After learning of the second Death Star’s destruction, a group of Stormtroopers decide to find new work by joining the Jedi Academy. I wish it lived up to the concept.
• “Kirks Up, Ho’s Down”: I didn’t even make it through this one. Thanks to some transporter something or other young Captain Kirk ends up on the Enterprise-D and acts like a drunken frat boy. If you thought the joke earlier about Kirk sexually assaulting a probe droid was funny this is up your alley. Also, seek professional help.
• There’s also a “Official Handbook To The Marvel Universe” style section about the various characters and locations as they appear in this comic, plus some joke ads with the figures.

The photography and diorama designs are really good. This is the only positive thing I have to say about this. Granted, Twisted Toyfare Theater is just not my style of humor. It’s like Robot Chicken but more juvenile and I don’t usually like Robot Chicken. If any of this sounded good, then this may be something for you to check out. For me, I’ll be letting this one go away.