Thought Caption: Ambush can see em.
, with a dash ofSquirrel Girlthrown in, though Ambush appeared before either of them.
52 (December, 1982). Originally he appeared as a minor foe ofSuperman, before deciding to become a superhero himself, though Ambush Bug proves himself utterly incompetent at the job. As time went on, his appearances became increasingly in-jokey,Fourth Wallbreaking, satirical and surreal. As a generallyFun Personifiedcharacter, he wasnt seen much during the pits ofThe Dark Age of Comic Books, and though he is rarely used by other writers, he still exists in the DC Universe. He became a supporting character in Keith GiffensDoom Patrol.
Teleportation: Ambush Bugs original actual superpower. Early appearances required there to be one of his cybernetic bugs at the destination, but this limitation was eventually removedvia lightning.
Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Ambush Bug answered his own letters, and in his first issue was puzzled that he had to wait months for feedback from the reader who had just finished the book.
Before that, there was editor Julius Schwartz.
In German, a Schwabe can mean a cockroach.
Medium Awareness: He has an uncanny ability to see through Clark Kents disguise, and even remarks how no one should be fooled by it. Superman was not pleased. Supergirl took it with more grace when Bush revealed he knew who she was,merely by observing her in both her identities.
Stuffed into the Fridge: Parodied with a sequence where Ambush goes shopping and cannot find a fridge without the body of an ex-girlfriend in it. He settles for a mini-fridge with a pygmy corpse inside. In fact, through the entire issue, there are dozens of female corpses all over the place. Some even get
supposedly comes OUT of the game to interact directly with the players instead of their characters – the back cover was a mask to cut out and assemble to put on for that particular scene
Beware the Silly Ones: So you think the weak idiot in the bright green suit cant do squat, do ya? Lemme tell you this – combineMotor MouthwithTeleport SpamConfusion Fuand the occasional dash of genre savviness and you got a damn powerful enemy on your hands, buster.
Gag Series: Every issue skips from place to place in The DCU making fun of everything from Superman to The Sandman.
Living Clothes: The archnemesis of Ambush Bug is Argh!Yle!, a sentient sock with a Doctor Doom mask. He hates the Bug because when Argh fell to earth, Irwin Schwab (the man who would become the Bug) left him to die while rescuing what became the Bugs costume suit.
Teleport Spam: Part of the reason of why hes a great fighter when dueling against serious enemies. Superman has learned to loathe this.
This character provides examples of the following Tropes:
Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Hes probably glued himself to the farthest end of the silly side of the scale.
Took a Level in Badass: Originally, he needed small electronic bugs to teleport. He has since internalized the ability.
Super Hero Origin: ParodiesSupermans. The greatestdandyin an alien world, Brum-El, decides to discard a chain letter, and as a result, discovers his planet is going to be hit by a swarm of meteorites which will kill all life. Againstthe belief of all experts, he creates a rocket… to save his wardrobe. And then it turns out the meteorites
, Ambush Bug can be found in the Watchtower (for heroes) or the Hall of Doom (for villains). His first line is Hey, look whos in your video game!
End-of-Series Awareness: Ambush Bug throws an after-party at the end of his first miniseries.
Dan DiDio is one of his mortal archenemies. When fighting against Bug, hes an idiot intent on destroying the damn green pest.
, he wakes up and finds he got married to Dumb Bunny of the Inferior Five.
Superman once heard the story. He thought the idea of a scientist building a rocketship to save something from a doomed planet the dumbest story hed heard.
He convinced the villain in theDoom Patrolseries to drop his plan, cause the book was being cancelled and there was no hope for him to see how it ended.
When he appeared in an issue ofSupergirls comic, he mistook her for a Gender BentSuperman.
Wacky Sound Effect: Meta. The letterer had to work overnight and didnt want to wake her baby, so the bomb does
HeelFace Turn: He started off as a supervillain and decided to become a superhero.
Meta Guy: One of the first of the modern versions.
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. Who immediately becomes a Doctor Doom parody, angry at being left behind.
dressed as the mysterious Pandora that showed up in DC the first issues of theNew 52.
Bizarro Universe: There is (or was) a counterpart on Htrae – Bizarro Ambush Bug. Fittingly, he is the only
Its suggested in a one-shot that while he can read speech bubbles (and presumably thought bubbles), he cant hear what other characters on the page are saying the speech bubbles are his only means of communication.
(in Supermans body): Destroy TV sets?!! You
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: One of his nemeses is The Koala Who Walks Like A Man, a parody ofMarvel ComicsGiant Monster comics fromthe Silver Age. It goes niknak. Its very cute.
so. He also wears a costume reminiscent of
Clingy Costume: The zipper is stuck.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Apparently one of Ambush Bugs super powers. He can also actually see the speech bubbles that come out of characters mouths, and once askedZatannawhy the text in hers is backward.
And poor Homer Spalding is named only for making the mischief Ambush Bug does to him punnable.
He also convinces Batman to ensurehis Silver Age exploitsend up with as much dignity as possible, even if they failed to save the show.
In theNew 52, hes a roving reporter for Channel 52 News, a method of combining information about whats happening in the DCU with a comedy backup strip.
Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: His appearance in
Grand Finale: In an interview, Keith Giffen stated that Ambush Bugs appearance in the Supergirl Matrix tie-in for Convergence is the final Ambush Bug story, unless hes asked to do something else with the character.
Fun Personified: He first appeared as a fairly standard supervillain, but within just a couple appearances had jumped into outright comedy, making fun of the fan obsessions of the day. So muchDarkseidis willing to go karaoking with im.
Note that Cheeks isnt alive or even animated (except when he briefly became undead), Ambush Bug just
A character fromThe DCU, created by comic book writer/artist Keith Giffen, Ambush Bug is theCloudcuckoolandersecret identity of Irwin Schwab, a man raised solely on TV who one day discovered a greenteleportationsuit that was sent within a capsule from a doomed planet (or so he claims.) He has starred in several critically acclaimed mini-series, though he is pretty muchon the fringe of the comic universe he inhabits.
During his latest miniseries, he also found his own gender-bentalternate.
is lampshaded by fellow fourth-wall-smasher Bat-Mite. Youre a pretty obscure heroeven for this show.
Shout-Out: Expect to see several in pretty much every comic about him. (As well as the occasionalTake That!.) Appeared in
Interactive Narrator: In one of Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Flemings stories, the storys villain plans, after attacking the heroes, to go after the narrator for an egregious pun.
), he was likewise perfectly aware that he was in a roleplaying game.
Curse Cut Short: Meta, thus combined withGag Censor. In an splash page, the sentences are riddled with Ambush Bugs teleport sound. Comes handy when the editor describes him as a pain in the *pop!*.
Arc Number: 52 seems to have special meaning for Bug.
were harmless, leaving the man naked and humiliated. And then agiant radioactive space spiderloots the rocket before accidentally nudging it to Earth, where it crashes, leaving one of the rockets two remaining contents – a lime green suit – stuck in the antenna of a random Metropolis loser. The other item?
Arch-Enemy: Argh! Yle! the living sock. Yes, his archenemy is a sock.
Ignored Expert: Parodied with Brum-El (a parody of Superman father, Jor-El). Brum-El was not a scientist, just The Dandy in a very advanced civilization, and instead of saving his family, he chose to save his wardrobe. Again, when his planet failed to be destroyed, he was just mocked and left naked.
Rage Against the Author: Giffen/Bug isnt above lampshadingDC Comicsfaults (or his own)..
The closestMarvel Comicsequivalent would likely beDeadpool
Determinator: Goes againstBat-Miteand endures a round of being beat down byBatmanandAquamanin an effort to save the
Ambush Bug stars in theGrand Finaleof
Punny Name: Argh!Yle! (obviously), Brum-El (less obviously – ever heard of Beau Brummel?) andpossiblyIrvin Schwab.
has an issue number 7, but no number 6. The joke being that there was a huge delay with the release of the next issue after issue 5… so it was numbered 7 to mock the delay (Issue 6 is
, where he helps Batman try to save the show fromBat-Mites attempts to make itJump the Sharkand get cancelled. For extra credit, Bug is voiced byHenry Winklerthe original shark-jumper.
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will die! Then, I will defeat your fellow heroes, take over your nation, imprison its citizens,destroy their TV sets, burn their homes, and
Companion Cube: Cheeks the Toy Wonder, a Big Boy doll Ambush Bug adopted as his sidekick.
Post-Modernism: The meta-knowledge is the driving gag behind Ambush Bug. Who happens to be insane, so all that stuff could just be in his head.
When Mayfair Games published a scenario for their DC tabletop RPG that featured Ambush Bug (
Berserk Button: He doesnt take too kindly to anyone who threatens TV sets.