The photo and question above are taken from everyone’s favorite suburban white flight and paranoia social network, Nextdoor.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably already identified the flag as that of the Rebel Alliance, a.k.a Alliance to Restore the Republic, from Star Wars. The red symbol — known by hardcore fans as the “starbird” — first appeared on the helmets of the fighter pilots who made the desperate attempt to destroy the Death Star in A New Hope (a.k.a. “the original” to those of us who saw it in the theatre during its original release). It’s since found its way into all sorts of Star Wars stories.
The only way it could be more a product of its decade is if it featured someone with a comically large sword (or a comically large number of regular swords) and pouches, pouches, pouches.
The comic starts with the classic team-up plotline of “first we fight because of some misunderstanding, but then we team up to take on a big bad villain.”
This being a comic from that era, writer Peter David managed to fit in an STD joke into the battle:
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In case you’re wondering why the Hulk is so quippy, it’s because Bruce Banner managed to merge his personality with Hulk’s, resulting in his becoming a big green scientist with a bad attitude. As for Venom, he’d already made the transition from villain to anti-hero.
Venom and Hulk are both in San Francisco to lend a hand after an earthquake. A local TV station gets a letter from someone going by the name of “Dr. Bad Vibes” — he claims responsibility for the earthquake, and unless his ransom demands are met, he’ll make an even bigger one!
Hulk and Venom barge into the TV station during a live on-air reading of Dr. Bad Vibes’ ransom note and trash-talk him ’80s/’90s wrestler style. This scene also provides us with a view of Hulk’s totally ’90s “rad” haircut:
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In case you’re too young to remember, Hulk and Venom’s simultaneous “beat (clap) you up!” line comes from the “Hans and Franz” skits from Saturday Night Live at the time:
In the end, Hulk and Venom find Dr. Bad Vibes, who actually can’t control earthquakes. He’s a delusional guy with a cardboard box labeled “Earthquake Machine.” He sent his threatening letter prior to the quake and by comic-book-coincidence, the earthquake followed, with “hilarity” soon ensuing:
