Stanley and His Monster: Difference between revisions

 

It was briefly revived in the 1990s by [[Phil Foglio]], who wrote an issue of ''Secret Files and Origins'' (which revealed that Spot was actually a demon who had been booted out of Hell for being too nice) and a four-issue mini-series. The revival managed to make the fluffy whimsical series into part of [[The DCU]] ''without'' making it [[Darker and Edgier]] -- this despite the fact that the mini-series culminated in Stanley storming the gates of Hell to rescue Spot.<ref>And to find out how that was pulled off, read the note under "Self Inflicted Hell", below.</ref> An ongoing series did not result, and that's the last the world heard from Stanley and His Monster.

(Except for a guest appearance in 2001 in, of all things, a ''[[Green Arrow]]'' story arc written by [[Kevin Smith]] -- which was not fluffy or whimsical ''at all''. Let's not talk about that. They also made a cameo in ''[[Infinite Crisis]]''.)

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* [[A Boy and His X]]

* [[Fluffy the Terrible]]: Spot

* [[No Name Given]]: Spot's original name was never revealed. (The later Foglio version asserted that he didn't have one, unless "the Nameless One" counts as a name.)

 

* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Stanley's parents are at first bewildered, concerned, and freaked out by all the crazy things that happen... but by the final issue they've come to terms with it.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: DC wouldn't let Foglio use [[John Constantine]], so he created an almost-identical character named Ambrose Bierce and hung a lampshade on it. And they wouldn't let him use [[Neil Gaiman]]'s [[Sandman]] in a dream sequence, so Gardner Fox's original Sandman appears instead (but talks and acts as if he were Gaiman's King of Dreams).

* [[Chekhov's Armoury]]: Justified -- When Stanley is preparing to go rescue Spot, Ambrose Bierce has him pick "Everything he thinks they will need", simultaneously casting a spell that creates a causality loop in which whatever Stanley picks will be exactly what's required. But it forms a kind of [[Plot Tailored to the Party]] as Stanley and the Monster will be unable to leave Hell until all the items are used.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Played with. Foglio seems to be seeing how many references to [[Vertigo Comics]] he can work in without the story ceasing to be light and fluffy. (Also, the cover of the first issue depicts [[Darker and Edgier]] versions of the characters, knee-deep in skulls -- being day-dreamed by an editor while Foglio pitches the light and fluffy mini-series to him.)

* [[Historical Domain Character]]: Ambrose Bierce, John-Constantine-like occult detective, is supposedly ''the'' [[Ambrose Bierce]], whose horror stories were based on fact. (His famous disappearance in the DC Universe was due to him going into hiding because an [[Eldritch Abomination]] was coming to complain about the write-up he'd given it.)

* [[Occult Detective]]: Ambrose Bierce

* [[Talking with Signs]]: Used by the angel Duma ([[The Voiceless]]) to communicate.

* [[To Hell and Back]]

* [[With This Herring]]: See [[Chekhov's Armoury]] above. Stanley storms Hell armed with a Halloween mask, a bottle of soda, an umbrella, a packet of hot dogs, a bottle of barbeque sauce and a little red wagon.

 

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Subverted; Morpheus himself makes a cameo.

** Thank god it all ends on a (relatively) happy note; {{spoiler|Spot only eats Stanley's grandfather because [[Karmic Death|he really, really deserved it]] and the Monster later erases Stanley's memories of all this horror to restore his mental health}}.

* [[Harmful to Minors]]

 

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[[Category:DC Comics Series]]