Remembering Combo Man

"Remember Combos?" came a bored IM toward the end of the day from a coworker yesterday. Likely it was a setup for some joke, but he was off-guard when I countered with, "Remember Combo Man?" and launched into an explanation of the character. At a loss, he replied with, "I'm not sure what to do. I've never gotten to this point so quickly before." and promptly logged off.

Combos are pretzel snacks with various flavors of cheese fillings. Appearing at 1AM munching on a Polly-O String Cheese on a camping trip back in college prompted one of my buddies to dub me the “snackin'-est m****** f****** EVER.” Given the Doritos, Kit Kats, Cheese Puffs, and Milanos in my diet, one could hardly deem his assessment to be hyperbole. Despite this, I've never actually HAD Combos, although another coworker had IM-ed me a few months ago that she was enjoying them as a late-night snack, so I knew they were still around. What I DID remember was Combo Man.

Marvel Comics were the main focus of my comic collecting years. From approximately 1988-1996 I accumulated the bulk of my collection, although I had gotten a few here and there before that and I've occasionally picked up a graphic novel or trade paperback since I stopped actively collecting. Besides a frightening level of knowledge about the most obscure characters(I still have that Quasar vs. Green Lantern article kicking around in my head), I also remember many of the ads.

Every Marvel comic I bought with a cover date of August 1995 had a 2 page Combos ad with a character named “Combo Man”, whose outfit was clearly a hybrid of several Marvel characters. Readers were asked to identify the 14 characters who comprised this hero for a chance to win a leather jacket, t-shirt, or cap, all featuring Combo Man. He had the Hulk's hair, Cyclops' visor, Iron Man's face, and from there it gets harder to describe by body part so working my way down, his costume includes in order elements of Magneto, The Punisher, Captain America, Sabretooth, Carnage, Daredevil, Spider-man, Century, the Human Torch, the Silver Surfer, and finally Gambit's boots.

I couldn't find this original ad online anywhere, but apparently there was an ashcan comic given away with comics in 1996. Maybe I should have eaten some Combos back in college after all. Then again, given the origin summary I found on this message board, maybe the story of a teen with a backpack full of comics and pretzel snacks hit with radiation and turned into a superhero DIDN'T need to be in my collection. Then again, there was a time when I spent money on things like Night Thrasher and Fantastic Force. So who am I to be retroactively discerning?

'nuff said.