Nintendo Comics System

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Nintendo Comics System, first published in 1990, was a short-lived imprint of the now-defunct comic book company Valiant Comics. As the name suggests, it was a series of comic books based on the popular Nintendo video game franchises and their cartoon spin-offs. The titles published within this imprint included stories based on:

  • Super Mario Bros.. (of course) - In the only truly comedic comic in the series, Mario and Luigi defend the Mushroom Kingdom against the evil forces of Bowser Koopa.
  • Game Boy - In what may or may not be a Spin-Off from the Super Mario Bros.. comic, a disgruntled man named Herman Smirch is turned into a slave for Super Mario Land villain Tatanga and is forced to release through "the gateway" (a.k.a. a Game Boy) when the alien demands it. Luckily, other Game Boy players are always around to release Mario (who has a strangely different personality here than in his other comic) through the gateway so he can drive Tatanga's forces away.
  • The Legend of Zelda - Link and Zelda have to protect the Triforce of Wisdom from Ganon, the Prince of Darkness. These comics take place following the events of Zelda II and have many details in common with the cartoon series based on the games which debuted around the same time.
  • Captain N: The Game Master - Based on the cartoon of the same name, except it takes itself more seriously. Also, Samus Aran, having been oddly absent from the cartoon, is here, while third party characters Simon Belmont and Mega Man are absent.
  • Metroid - Documents further adventures of Samus Aran and is possibly set in the same continuity as the Captain N comics (it uses the same design for Mother Brain). Unfortunately, only one story was written for this one.
  • Punch-Out!!!! - Stories are made based off of Little Mac's matches with his opponents in the games. OK, only two (Piston Honda and Supermacho Man).

Unfortunately, despite Nintendo's prominence in the video game market at the time, the comics apparently did not sell very well; arguably, the Zelda comics were the most popular and had the longest run. They were all discontinued right around the time the Super Nintendo was released (though as Nintendo Power showed the following year, it was not the end of Nintendo comics in general).

Tropes used in Nintendo Comics System include:

Super Mario Bros.. and Game Boy

  • Apook Corporation Products
  • Catch Phrase: Bowser likes to declare that his current plan is "gonna be excellent!"
  • The Ditz: King Toadstool and Lemmy Koopa
  • Dumbass Has a Point: Subverted because King Toadstool's assumption that Wooster was betraying them was wrong
  • Flippant Forgiveness: Bowser gets really mad at the Koopalings when Princess Peach tricks them into letting her go, except Lemmy because he's an idiot.
  • Fourth Wall Mail Slot: "Dear Princess Toadstool" was treated as such, despite that she was really just answering mail from other characters
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: After first releasing Tatanga, Herman Smirch is ordered to take him and Princess Daisy out to lunch. Where do they go to eat? The World Trade Center. As if that's not enough, when they get there, a dark cloud is hovering above the towers. Does This Remind You of Anything??
    • Oddly, the Twin Towers show up in the Super Mario Bros. movie--when Koopa starts merging the worlds, his run-down pair of skyscraper palaces merge into the WTC.
      • And in the second Game Boy story, Tatanga and his minions hijack a space shuttle. The shuttle's name? Colombia.
  • Hypnotize the Princess: In "Magic Carpet Madness". But it ends up hurting Bowser rather than helping him - while hypnotized, Peach wrecks his blimp.
  • Jerkass: Mario tends to act like this in the Super Mario Bros.. stories
    • Herman Smirch in the Game Boy comics.
  • Off-Model: Wart in his first appearance
  • Parody Commercial
  • Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity: The "Stupid Bomb" is a literal Idiot Ball that, when it's triggered by throwing or dropping, causes everyone around it to become stupid. (Incidentally, the King of Mushroomland, who is already an idiot, is completely unaffected.)
  • The Scrappy: Stanley the Talking Fish, at least as far as Mario and Wendy Koopa are concerned.
  • Took a Level In Badass: Compare Tatanga's appearance here to how he looks in the official game artwork
  • Welcome to The Real World: Pretty much the plot of all the Game Boy stories

The Legend of Zelda

Captain N: The Game Master and Metroid

  • Betty and Veronica: Samus Aran and Princess Lana are rivals for Kevin's affections in the Captain N comics.
  • Freaky Friday: Happens to Kevin and Duke in "A Dog's Life"
  • Gilligan Cut
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: Lana's response to Samus's inquiry about her relationship with Kevin. It doesn't stop her from being jealous, though.
  • Hey! It's That Artist Joe Quesada got his start here!
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Samus Aran almost goes ahead with some pretty questionable stuff to win Captain N's affections. In one issue where she and Princess Lana are in jail, she almost leaves Lana there when escaping. In another, she ends up in the Bad Future and rejoices that Lana is gone and she can have Kevin all to herself, despite the fact that, you know, the bad guys have taken over every world except the garbage planet where Kevin now lives, and by not going back in time and changing one thing she's screwing over everyone in Videoland. She does go back in the end.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Literally. When the N Team first meet Samus Aran, none of them are aware of her gender until she removes her helmet.
  • We Can Rule Together: Samus makes an offer of this sort to Kevin.

Punch-Out!!!!

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