Top 5 Worst Promotional Comics 

Folks, you’re mentioning so many amazing comics. Remember that I have the Comic Tropes Crappy Comics Contest happening now. Watch the video a few weeks back about Marvel’s toilet paper comic for details!

We all know Batman used the bat-credit card to pay for Onstar

The Onstar comic was given to the kids of someone who bought Onstar. They had a whole batman gift bag for your kids.

Your intros crack me up every time.

It's more likely the X-Men killed him. Wolverine has his claws popped, so he's got him impaled through the spine. Since he just vanishes, I'm assuming Cyclops gave him a full-power blast and disintegrated him as he lay paralyzed and dying.

The one that always stood out to me was Avengers - Ultron Quest. By its title, you might not realize it was a promotional comic, but then you see the brought to you by Wyndham Hotels in the corner. Ultron is about to repair himself after uploading his mind elsewhere because comic, but Jarvis only could narrow the exact point he's at to four different locations. Black Widow is confused about the fact that they're a team and can just split up, asking how they can possibly be in four places at once. Tony Stark, richest man in the Marvel universe, ends up showcasing Mr. Krabs level cheapness. His suggestion: Why, book a hotel room, of course! Not through Tony's dime, however, that's waaaayyyy too expensive for a man like Stark. Nope, he lets the Avengers graciously use his Wyndham Reward Points for free rooms. Because Tony is kind of an asshole.

I think one of the worst promotional comics Ive read is a Fantastic Four shilling Office Depot. Some of the highlights include Dr. Doom "brain draining" a bunch of middle schoolers, the day being saved by a rubber band ball, and characters talking about how great Office Depots supplies are.

Captain citrus is the most powerful character in the marvel universe i cannot wait for his appearance in the mcu

I was going to mention the Superman comic "The Computers That Saved Metropolis" from Radio Shack. Looking it up, I discovered that it had two sequels. Unbelievable.

I wouldn't say eBay is irrelevant. A lot of the way it works isn't avaliable on things such as Amazon and a lot of people still use it. Because of the individual sellers listing items it makes it a whole lot more reliable when buying. (so long as it's not a stock photo or what not.) Of course you can still get scammed, but at least it feels more personal when buying. Also, you can sometimes find a rare item unknowingly listed for a cheap price, which wouldn't occur on Amazon. I suppose OfferUp and others exist, but they're like Craigslist in being local.

There was one where the justice league (or just green lantern?) teamed up with Jared from subway. That one aged poorly to say the least

Oh hi, you've caught me still enjoying this joke every damn time.

They should have had A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.K promote that Northrop comic.

I think maybe one could make a moderately acceptable story where a captain Citrus would heal scurvy and improve people's immune system somewhat. Perhaps against a Skrull flu or something.

holycrap. I was surfing through your channel looking for a new one to watch and then boom a new video comes down from the heavens. At 3:30am too!

I remember there being a Daredevil comic book that promoted safety towards gasoline, and it involved the titular hero fighting a villainous gas vapor named Vapora.

I have a promotional Supergirl comic from Honda, that promotes seat belt safety and the Radio Shack Superman issue for the Tandy computer.

Man I'm here at work killing time on the graveyard shift and just bored out of my mind and then this notification pops up and I just appreciate your videos a lot Chris. Thanks for making my night better.

Reminds me of the old one-page Hostess ads. Villain of the month is committing a crime and hero of the month can only stop him with Hostess snacks. In the end villain is hauled off to jail, but is happy because he got his cupcakes/fruit pies/Twinkies.

Northop grumman/Avenger promotion comic seems the most insidious

The biggest mistake behind most of these(apart from existing) is they take themselves too seriously, if they were a parody they would be much easily to digest. But trying to make it like the real comics it's just too much , it's an insult to anyone's intelligence , even little kids.

How is a nice elderly couple trying helping a teenager creepy? Mixed signals.... You should do even more promotional comics.

I now remember that Captain Midnight was the mascot for Ovaltine. I had a coloring book of his as a child.

You didn't mention those "comics" they used to give out at Radio Shack where Superman (with assistance from Supergirl and sometimes Wonder Woman) and some random kids would solve crimes by using a TRS-80 computer. The artwork wasn't bad, but the stories were pretty terrible.

Just have to say, I love your openers. A lot of channels go really complicated with them. But yours are simple, funny, and set things up for the episode. Love em ❤️

Reminds me of those Hostess snack ads in the later 70s early 80s comics

In 1992 I sent away for a Charleston Chew double-sided Marvel comic. I don’t recall a mention of Charleston Chew in any of the four stories (Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer, Wolverine/Jubilee) but that last one had Sam Keith art. So.... that was cool.

It is disappointing how much I am bothered that I cannot find a copy of the eBay comic

My first comic was a promotional for twinkies where Aunt May gets twinkie inspired Capt. universe like powers.

I vaguely remember Superman and maybe Wonder Woman shilling for Tandy computers. But I just loved the Big Boy comics that the fast food chain gave away. Also the cool Atari comics. I have the collected Swordquest comics which featured art by George Perez. The recent Swordquesr comic was actually also really great. I didn't read the Centipede series, but I heard good stuff. And I'm really hoping that Atari Force comes back into print. I loved that book as a kid.

I remember reading one way back about Daredevil up against a sentient carbon monoxide cloud, which he couldn't see though echolocation. The moral was to keep the batteries in your detector fresh, though I don't know how he ended up beating it.

The Creeps that tried to get Jubilee actually showed up in a later marvel comic. They appeared in the horror centric Scream: Curse of Carnage, in a really creepy way. Pretty cool to see characters created for a throwaway kid friendly PSA show up in a story over 20 years later

I can't remember who the sponsor was, but there was a shit tier Black Panther comic 2 years ago that was so bad I just had to brain dump it if I were to continue having the will to live

Why would eBay be on it's way to dying? Sure, there are a lot of other websites out there such as Amazon, Craigslist and so on - but there is no other single website that can offer the same variety as eBay.

I'm surprised that Superman meets the Nestle Quik Rabbit didn't get a mention. Great video though....but I did get a kick out of those live action Batman OnStar commercials. Hey....I just thought of something. Did you ever consider doing a related video of the best and worst of Hostess Fruit Pies ads in Marvel Comics? lol

Another great video! But I don't think Beast was using a hologram to disguise himself as a TV - he says he was using a hologram "projector" which projected a hologram of Beast through the boy's TV screen - that seems to make more sense from the panels you showed, but heck that comic is crazy enough maybe the panels you didn't show were even more muddled (how would a hologram projector send the hologram through someone's TV???)

Another awesome video, Chris! I agree with the points you made but the one that always turned me off was the "dumbing down" of the main heroes. I guess times were tough and even the comic industry had to whore themselves with other corporate entities to turn a buck. I didn't read too many promo comics but I remember the one-page ads for Hostess cupcakes or Twinkies back in the day. I always wondered how Spider-man fit into his suit after eating as many Twinkies as he did HahA! Thanks for posting, Chris!

Wow. Over here in the UK we never had these *promotional comics* so seeing these is an eye opener. Great video as per usual.

Kinda wish Captain Orange was instead named something stupid like “Orange Torch” to parody Green Lantern

The Collection Eater Guy was probably destroying comics to “preserve the value” of his collection.

*Captain Citrus appears* Iron Man: "What the f***k smells like floor cleaner around here?"

Great episode! I’ve terrible one or two page ads like this, but I didn’t realize there were entire books! So painful!

I appreciate how genuinely entertaining and funny your videos are. Thank you!! I always watch a new video

Could you do a video on Brian Michael Bendis? I feel he's the writer I see people hate on the most, but remains extremely successful.

"You caught me engaging in the Purge" :P I'm very glad I randomly discovered your channel thanks to your Phoenix Jones interview. Speaking of pervert info-comics, there was an even more difficult to read one featuring Power Pack. I don't recall how I came across it, yet it happened. In the very same comic Spider-Man revealed some tragic elements to his backstory that I believe have never since been acknowledged. Also... "...that really old movie - the Empire Strikes Back..." Man, I love how you don't even pause to acknowledge you're referencing something. But also, Combo Man and the Avengers/military promotional comics belong on this list... especially Combo Man. He's a kid who gets pretty much every super power from eating radioactive combos. In the various military promotional comics, basically what happens is Captain America, Thor, etc. end up stymied, so then a junior member of the armed forces has to step in and be "the real hero."

Turns out Batman the master of gadgets just buys his gadgets from retailers 🤣🤣🤣

Chris thanks for another great video presentation. Entertaining, informative, and funny! I was wondering... Do you think any of these kinds of comics will ever be worth money in the future given that they are also sign of the times?

Totally spot-on! Love your commentary on things comics! One miss, though, IMHO, is your eBay comment. It's the best place to get an obscure comic book (my black and white indie comics from the '80s collection is growing bigger every month!) and keep track of comic book prices. After that mascot taught me how to use the web-site, I'm a pro!

Actually destroying comics to make your own collection rarer makes some odd sense. P.S. Citrus Man's arch-nemesis is Doctor Scurvy! LOL

Mad respect for your channel. Just one question... how do you keep track of all these different universes?

Revisiting my haul from Comic Con this year, I came across a an Avengers/Western Union Comic. WU is mentioned on the first page (with various shots of the logo all throughout the background of the rest of the comic) and the last page, with the rest of the comic focused on Captain America and Nova fighting the Wrecking Crew. I was impressed just how much it was a straight up Avengers comic with the promotional work kinda taking a back seat.

There’s a Judge Dredd half page strip advertising Jolly Green Giant sweetcorn. Not quite the same as the comics you have here, mainly because it was not a ‘promotional’ strip, it was a punishment! In the late 1970’s, the then publishers of 2000ad (the comic which ran / runs the Dredd strip), where taken to court due to 2 episodes of the Dredd Cursed Earth saga. In it Dredd faces a number of characters who straight up resemble Ronald MacDonald, the Michelin Man, the Jolly Green Giant and other corporate mascots. In the true 1970’s punk ethic of 2000ad / Judge Dredd, it’s an on the nose satire on consumerism and corporations. Unfortunately in this case Dredd wasn’t the law and the strip was banned from being reprinted (however they were finally reprinted in 2015) and Judge Dredd himself was forced to eat sweetcorn. And like it!

Lol, I love his opening jokes.

Oh Hi! You caught me wondering if you'd cover the 70's Hostess adverts that seemed to be in every Marvel & DC book in the late 70's?

The Blockbuster thing might be because their free service they offer with safe a kid where you could have videos made in case your child was abducted, the news would have video ready pronto.

Time to dive into another great Comic Tropes episode. I love the evolution of the set Chris!

dude I’ve been watching your channel from the start. Wow when did you get to 32,000 subscribers. That’s great. You look much happier. I’m glad for you.

"Jubilee, aren't you a vampire?" "I wasn't one then." "Oh...Hey, doesn't your son become some kind of X-Iron man guy?" "Yes." "Wow...your life is WEIRD."

I know I have said it before but I really enjoy the different and always Really funny ways you introduce the topic for each episode. You rock chris

Great video! I think it would be fun to see a "Best Promotional Comics" video, although it might be hard to find more than a couple. I recall a Marvel sexual-abuse awareness comic from the 80s featuring Spider-Man and the Power-Pack that, if memory serves, was actually pretty decent.

Back again just to tell you I'm obsessed with your intro. Gotta get a 10 minute jam goin adterwrds.

Commenter: Who wants to watch a Comic Tropes episode at 3:30 in the morning? Me: Oh Boy 3:30am

Jesus, I just (briefly) talked about the On-Star Batman comic being my first comic book ever in a video, about a month ago, and RU-vid now recommended this video to me. It's like it doesn't want me to ever forget...

I love how every intro to Comic Tropes is the "so bad its good" feel.

"Instead of calling the CDC, he eats it." lol...

I've got an old Jones Store Co promo comic that was released in Kansas City. It features Spiderman and the Hulk... can't recall who they were fighting, but basically it's Peter Parker taking Bruce Banner clothes shopping after he turns back to normal from the Hulk.

I remember those citrus fruit comics being handed out at my school for no apparent reason. I also remember visiting a friends' house seeing he has a copy, and then reading it 4 the lulz.

One of my most favorite channels on RU-vid for sure. Consistent quality videos

It's not really comparable to what you've got here, but Lego had a really good comic book in the early 2000s that went along with their "Bionicle" line of sets. It was written by Greg Farshtey and had a couple of different artists, all of which are pretty great imo. I don't know if it's the type of thing you'd review, but if you want something fun to read on the side that's meant to promote a bunch of Lego sets it's really great. One of my favorite comic books that I read as a kid. They have all the books on biomediaproject.com/bmp/comics/ if anyone wants to take a look.

I like how they put "not for resale" on these issues. I think that goes unsaid.

I read a Harley-Davidson tie-in Avengers comic once. It was ok. It basically just had Captain America and Black Widow use Harley-Davidson bikes in a couple of the panels. They didn't even talk about them or anything.

Thanks for all you do to educate us. You come off as a good guy

@comictropes I love your stuff keep it up!

I always loved the Hostess ads in comics that had some hero taking out a villain with cupcakes or Twinkies.

On the other end of the spectrum, you could do a video on the awesomeness of the old school Hostess ads!

I remember having to get money orders at the gas station to buy the stuff I won on eBay. Good times. Great video as always!

“I’m pretty that sure rape isn’t a super power.” - Our host, Chris

I demand to see a team up between Combo-man and Captain Citrus

Wasn't there a promo comic for Stridex with the Xmen sometime in the 90's?

Hey, Chris. What's Up?, Since You Talked About Howard Chakin, Frank Miller And Other Comics Creators Who Owned Their Own Creations, I Was Wondering, What Your Thoughts On Cerebus And Dave Sim? I Really Wanna Know. Im Curious

Love these videos man, thank you

I have a special place in my heart for Chick-fil-A's super hero cow comics.

immediate like for that opening! love your content so far.

If anyone is interested, there are actually two Batman/Onstar comics. The second one featured Mr. Freeze, I think. That was a big deal with GM and DC. You can imaging a lot of dealers received promotional material. And yes, ebay is definitely facing more competition now. Partially due to how ebay and PayPal have policies that allow buyers to scam sellers through fraudulent claims.

The Onstar Batman actor was Bruce Thomas, not ”nobody”. C’mon he even has a name combining two generations of Waynes. He was in ”Legally Blonde 1 and 2, Hall Pass” and ”Army Of Darkness-Evil Dead III”. I sometimes feel Americans conflate ”actor” and ”celebrity”, you can, but dont have to be both. I have never seen the commercial,but i have seen him in the movies.

I give you points for trudging through this. I think everclear would be a stronger drive for this collection.

Woah, the pervert in the X-Men comics is so "ugly people are evil."

There was one Onstar Batman commercial that had Booger from Revenge of the Nerds playing Joker.

eBay on its way to dying? What

Just a heads up, during the NGEN segment the screen with a drone at 7:59 and the section starting around 8:50 have flicker across the bottom.

The power of cringe on display from these promo comics was high.

Your openings are gold

Although I still have a few promotional comics, I used to have alot more. In fact, at one time I had at least 10 copies of a Radio Shack promotional comic produced by DC. It had Superman on the cover, and the story involved TRS-80 computers saving Metropolis. I eventually gave them all away. Anywho, eBay dying? News to me. I buy back-issues via eBay quite alot.

Can't wait to see you talk about X-Statix! Some of my favorite comics right there

"Hank, we've had word you're doing that thing with the TV again" "Hey, I gotta make sure those boys are safe... it's my duty and..." "You're relapsing again, aren't you?" "Yes. I need help."

Was that a bullet club shirt you were wearing in the intro :)

Interesting topic. Not sure if you ever heard of ProAction, it was Marvel Heroes teaming up with NFL players (in some bizarre promotion by Pizza Hut...).

Not gonna lie, Captain Citrus seems like a wholesome comic rather than shilling a specific product. Reminds me of those classic "Don't forget to take your vitamins, kids!" types of comics.

Great video; keep doing you man!

This is pretty obscure and forgettable but I specifically remember there being a promotional comic made by Williams sonoma around the mid to late 2000's about Spider-Man and the Avengers having a cook out with a bunch of childeren and Giant Man used some Pym Particles to make the ingredients and the tools bigger or something. Then the frightful four attacked them and the avengers and spiderman fought them while Jarvis and the childeren continued baking with all this giant stuff. And so after Spider-Man LITERALLY murders Klaw, the avengers aand spiderman eat cookies shaped like their faces. And I remember at the end Giant man says something like "Jarvis, thanks to you, and these Williams Sonoma™ baking trays, these kids will never go hungry again." That's my worst pick for a promotional comic anyway. I'll try and find my copy and put some scans online because right now you can't find it anywhere but I swear it exists.