normalman | |||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Cover to the Complete normalman trade paperback, with Captain Everything carrying normalman by Jim Valentino. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Publication information | |||||||||||||||||||||
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First appearance | Cerebus #56 (Nov. 1983) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Created by | Jim Valentino | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Alter ego | Norm-L | ||||||||||||||||||||
Place of origin | Arnold | ||||||||||||||||||||
Partnerships | Captain Everything Sgt. Fluffy Sophisticated Lady | ||||||||||||||||||||
Abilities | none | ||||||||||||||||||||
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normalman is a limited series of American comic books created by Jim Valentino. [1] It began in November 1983 as a four-page story in Cerebus #56 (Nov. 1983) before being launched as a full-color 12-issue series which was published by Aardvark-Vanaheim before moving to Renegade Press. There was also a crossover with Journey . The story of normalman concluded in normalman 3D Annual #1 (Renegade Press).
The series spoofed the comics of many comic book companies, including DC, Marvel, EC and Harvey, as well as doing parodies of The Spirit , Elfquest , Asterix , Star Wars , and The Wizard of Oz .
normalman was first collected in trade paperback by Slave Labor Graphics. Later a trade paperback which included several followups was published by Image Comics. Both trades are in black and white.In 2024, Image published a hardcover omnibus collecting the whole series in full color along with other material.
On the planet Arnold, a junior CPA had come to the conclusion that Arnold would explode in eight hours. In a take on the origin of Superman, the junior CPA built a rocket ship to launch his infant son into deep space. No sooner had he done so, however, than he discovered that Arnold was not going to explode after all, leading his enraged wife to murder him. Twenty years later, the rocket carrying the now-grown baby ended up crashing into an Earth-like planet called Levram ("Marvel" spelled backwards), populated entirely by super powered people. Because he had no superpowers of any kind, the locals dubbed him "normalman".
Most of the super-powered inhabitants of Levram were disposed to violence ("fight scenes") and normalman (or "norm" for short) sought a way to leave Levram for good and return to Arnold. His allies in this endeavor were the impossibly powerful but cheerfully dimwitted Captain Everything (a spoof of Superman and Mighty Mouse, whose ability to negate all known laws of physics and invent new superpowers at every plot twist made him the most powerful being in the universe limited only by his considerable stupidity), the battle-ready Sgt. Fluffy, agent of S.C.H.M.U.C.K. (which, according to the footnotes, stood for "nothing-in-particular"), and the beautiful Sophisticated Lady who would become the love of his life. normalman had gained an enemy in the Ultra Conservative who saw him as a threat to Levram's status quo. A mysterious time-traveling woman calling herself the Countess of Monte Crisco (who debuted in a later issue) had plans of her own regarding both normalman and Fluffy's ruby slippers.
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