A number of our future plans here at GeekPlate involve collaborations with some incredible, internationally-renowned cosplayers. In fact, in many ways, they inspired this whole thing.
While expert cosplayers can interpret any piece of pop culture into an incredible costume, it’s undeniable that their richest vein of inspiration is comics.
Sadly, while superheroes are endless founts of source material for those forging masks, wigs, capes and tights, they’re not as generous with their dining habits.
I mean, what do superheroes eat?
Sure, The Avengers have their shawarma and Bruce Wayne has his impractically ostentatious dining table, but why isn’t there a superhero that can’t stop eating strawberry donuts? An iconic soup The Hulk eats in every issue of his standalone?
Sure, with costumes like that they’ve got to watch what they eat, but nothing?
Well, not ‘nothing’…
The year is 1977. The book: ‘Stan Lee presents the Mighty Marvel Superheroes’ Cookbook’.
As the venerable Mr. Lee (creator of The X-Men, Spiderman and many more iconic characters) writes in the introduction:
‘Do Superheroes ever find the time to eat? You bet they do! Awhile back some young fan asked us this question and it got us to thinking… After all, good meals are mighty important when one leads the exciting, active lives that they do.
‘After doing a bit of research we were thrilled to discover that Superhero recipes were super sensational! Then, we asked ourselves, why not let the whole wide world in on these novel, delicious dishes! And the result of this thought is right here in you hands, dear reader – the world’s first (and only) Superhero cookbook!!! Now, you and your palate can enjoy another great adventure with your favorite Superheroes!’
Now matter how endearingly colourful and bad-pun-laden you imagine a cookbook from 1977 filled with recipes written for children ‘by’ Superheroes to be, the book itself exceeds it.
While there is a degree of social conscience in here- kitchen safety, eating a proper breakfast, making the most of leftovers- almost every page gives you another culinary catastrophe to Marvel (sorry) at.
Captain America suggests you start your day with “VIP AND VINEGAR!” with cereal, pancakes or eggs.
The Hulk, meanwhile, presents his ‘Fried Potatoes’, which consist of ‘2 cups frozen potato strips, or 4 medium potatoes, pared and cut into chips’. Did the words ‘chips’ or ‘fries’ not exist in 1977?
Namor, fittingly, brings us fish dishes, with apologies to Charlie the goldfish:
Iron Man conveniently gets his iron from the same place as Stan Lee, beef liver:
Sadly, the book is dominated by dudes, with only Sue Storm, Janet van Dyne (aka Wasp) and The Scarlett Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) making appearances from across the gender divide:
There’s racial stereotypes:
Incredible out-of-character moments:
Pointless advice:
History lessons:
A slight dig at Donald Duck, particularly noteworthy now that Disney owns Marvel:
And this unmissable offer from the usually far-less-accommodating Thing:
All in all, it is a superb piece of work and an incredible piece of comics history.
We can’t wait to start recreating some of the recipes with the help of some of our favourite cosplayers.
In the meantime, if you know of any other culinary crossovers as wonderful as this, please contact us!
-GP
GeekPlate 