03 June 2010

Boy, It's Vintage! Wonder Bread BOY WONDER...Among Others

The seventies were the last decade to have just one 'Boy Wonder', the original Robin, Dick Grayson.  Dick was definitely a busy little beaver in those days; no wonder that DC Comics saw fit to introduce successors and replacements for him, beginning in 1983 when Jason Todd assumed his duties as Batman's brightly-clad sidekick. But who knows? Maybe Dick should never have agreed to that Wonder Bread gig back in 1974. In all fairness, no teenage boy we've ever known would turn down a sweet opportunity like that, either.  And when role-models like Superman or upstanding Gotham businessmen like The Penguin (ahem) agree to bare it all on trading card, you can't really blame the kid.

Then again, maybe Robin didn't have much of a choice. Wonder Bread's the best selling bread in America, and probably was in 1974, too.  Dick must have gotten some major exposure, but so would have DC Comics and their parent company - Warner Bros - that just happens to share the same initials as the bread bakery in question. Coincidence? Perhaps. Unless you  know that Wonder Bread's owned by Hostess, whose relationship with the comics industry back in the day was tighter than a pair of the Boy Wonder's briefs. We'll let you draw your own conclusion.
Robin [via]
The Penguin & Superman [via]

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