Time Capsule: Super-Hip!

He's just appeared in Doom Patrol. He had a recent role in an issue of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He's Super-Hip and he's making a comeback from the dark recesses of the 1960s! Who is he? And has he always been a canonical part of the DC Universe? We're going back in time, way back, so hold on tight!The label says October-November 1965...
ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE #95, DC Comics, October-November 1965
And I bet you didn't even know Bob Hope had his own comic. Well, he did. And in its 95th issue, he got an honorary nephew in the form of Tadwaller Jutefruce who came to live with him to go to Benedict Arnold High School where the faculty are all Universal Monsters. Bob tries to bond with the lad over "fab" talk, but he'll have none of it. No, young Tad is the world's biggest square.








Bob and his talking dog Harvard-Harvard perpetrate all sorts of pranks on him, and his first day at school doesn't quite go well (wolf man bites and such), but Tad is too square to show his anger. When he finally does, he suffers from a Hulk-like transformation from super-square... to Super-Hip! Great war cry (update your City of Heroes characters now)! Tad has always had Super-Hip inside him, but they are two distinct personalities. Tad has no memory of this transformation or of his actions as the obnoxious "Sultan of Swing". All that repressed hipness must go somewhere of course, and Super-Hip has loads of powers to express himself with. His winged feet allow him to fly. His electric guitar can force people to groove and dance. And he can turn into anything, the crazier the better. From Bob Hope #96, for example: Tad and Super-Hip would pretty much take over the book until its demise a couple years later (Bob Hope #109), becoming more and more central to the stories than the celebrity golfer. But Bob Hope's comic book stories don't happen in the DCU, do they? Well, they actually do, as Doom Patrol #104 (1966) reveals when Super-Hip shows up at Rita "Elasti-Girl" Farr's wedding: It's the panel this justifies his newest appearance in the latest volume of Doom Patrol, as a friend of Robotman's. He's gained a flying car since then, but it's definitely the same guy, perhaps older and wiser. The New DC: Where everyone can get together again. Who knows, maybe the super-fab Scooter will show up somewhere too.

SO HAVE OUR FOREFATHERS SPOKEN!

Comments

LiamKav said…
Hang on, if Super-Hip was created in 1981 then how comes he was in a comic from 1966?
Siskoid said…
No doubt because I never proofread my work.

Or: It's a paradox.
Unknown said…
This guy is GREAT. Why isn't Super-Hip in his own mini-series right now?
Siskoid said…
Well I think he may be being groomed for one. What else is Giffen gonna work on when Doom Patrol folds?