Spider-Man's Tangled Web #12
I Was a Teenage Frogman
[1] Watching the evening news, Eugene Colorito watches news coverage about his father’s parole from prison after getting arrested for crimes committed as the frog-themed villain known as Leap-Fog.[2] When asked if he will continue his criminal career, Vincent Colorito tells the press that his career as the Leap-Frog is done. This whole ordeal embarrasses Eugene who has to go back to school to be tormented for being the son of the Frogman. His friend Jerome asks Eugene is all right, but he points out how this recent development is going to make him an even bigger outcast at school than before. Jerome’s attempts to get Eugene to forget about fail. Eugene was just about to be tolerated at school and he is convinced a girl named Bridget was seemed interested in him. It’s then that Vincent arrives home and hears his son complaining about how being the “Son of the Frogman” will ruin his social life. Noticing his father is listening causes Eugene to shut up instantly. Wanting to get out of the tense scene, Jerome leaves, saying he’ll talk to Eugene tomorrow. However, Vincent is in a good mood and after telling his son how much he missed him gives Eugene a hug. When Eugene asks his father why there is so much media coverage of his release, Vincent explains that there a lot of heartwarming potential of him to reform publicly.
Eugene’s fears come true the next day at school when he is bullied by two jocks in the hall first thing in the morning. Eugene tries to save himself a pounding by joking along with them. That’s when Jerome arrives and tells off the bullies by pointing out that their own fathers — one deadbeat and the other a drunk driver — have faults of their own and drags Eugene away. Eugene then tells Jerome how bad his day has been, his chance with Bridget who made a joke at his expense, the punchline of which he couldn’t hear from the collective laughter of his other classmates. Eugene wonders how he can turn things around but Jerome cautions his friend that whatever it takes will probably require Eugene doing something he’ll regret.
When Eugene returns home, his father has been trying to find a new job, with little success. Partially because his house arrest ankle bracelet limits the amount of time he can spend away from home. Curious, Eugene asks Vincent why he first chose to become a super-villain. He explains that at the time he was unemployed and desperate. At the time there were so many heroes and villains appearing he thought nobody would pay attention to a crook dressed like a frog trying to score a few easy bucks. When asked why he didn’t become a hero, Vincent points out that villains take money while heroes usually return it and seldom make it. That’s when there is a knock at the door, and Eugene is surprised to see that it’s Spider-Man wearing a really bad disguise. The wall-crawler explains that he has come by to make sure that Eugene’s father is staying out of trouble. Vincent is angry that Spider-Man would intrude into his home and threaten him. Their argument comes to an abrupt end when the taxi that was waiting outside for Spider-Man to finish leaves. Losing his condescending tone, Spider-Man asks to the use the phone to call another.
While Spider-Man on the phone, Vincent reveals to his son that he lied to Spider-Man and has five of his old costumes stashed in the garage. Once Spider-Man is off the phone, he has had a chance to cool down and apologizes for coming on so strong earlier. Vincent can understand and assures Spider-Man that he’s committed to staying on the right side of the law. As they are seeing Spider-Man out, some of Eugene’s high school bullies drive by and shout taunts at Eugene and his father. Seeing this, Spider-Man openly admits that situations like this is why he doesn’t miss high school.
The next day at school, Eugene endures even more humiliation when his science class is dissecting frogs. When one of his bullies makes a joke about Eugene dissecting his father, even his teacher can’t help but have a good laugh at his expense. After school, Eugene wonders why everyone is going out of their way to remind him how much his father’s sucked as a super-villain. Jerome points out that his father is a local guy from the suburbs who thought he could make it big in the city. The disdain isn’t because Leap-Frog was a super-villain, it was because he was a failure and that reflected badly on the neighborhood. When Eugene mentions how his father kept his old costumes, Jerome asks why Eugene hasn’t tried one on yet and suggests that Eugene could use them to redeem his father’s good name. When Eugene gets home he is shocked to see his father’s knee wrapped in a bandage. Vincent dismisses it and says he finally got a job. He turns on the television to show his son his new job. Eugene is horrified to see his father is playing the role of “Frog-Face” in commercials for a used car dealership where he is beat with a baseball bat by Bargain Bob. His anger growing, Eugene goes outside and is pelted with dead frogs by his school bullies as they drive by his home. Having had enough, Eugene goes into the garage and pulls out one of his father’s costumes deciding that it is time that Frog-Man has earned some respect.
Dressed up as Frog-Man, Eugene barely learns how to control his leaping before he decides to teach his bullies a lesson. Remembering that they loiter outside the local convenience store. Unfortunately, Frog-Man flubs his landing and his bullies — who are out with Bridget — begin beating him. That’s when Vincent arrives and pulls the bullies off his son and warns them to leave Eugene alone or he’ll beat up their fathers. As the bullies run off, Bridget helps Eugene up and apologizes for kicking him. When Eugene suggests they kiss, Bridget thinks it’s cool that Eugene just doesn’t care. As he drives Eugene home, Vincent is actually quite proud of his son but suggests in the future that he needs to talk and act bigger than he is sometimes to get out of dangerous situations. Later, after Eugene goes to bed for the night, Vincent turns on the news and is mortified to see that his son made the evening news, figuring his co-workers are going to tease him.
Recurring Characters
Frog-Man, Vincent Patillo, Spider-Man
Continuity Notes
Chronologically, according to the Frog-Man and Leap-Frog entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4 and 6 explain, this story follows Leap-Frog’s last appearance as a criminal in Iron Man #127. These handbooks clarify that Vincent and Eugene’s last name is actually Patilio. Eugene uses the last name Colorito here as an attempt to distance himself from his father’s criminal past. The news media refers to Vincent as “Vincent Colorito” in error as explained in the handbooks. (Sidebar: The Marvel Chronology Project has placed the chronology of these appearances in the wrong place. They probably haven’t corrected this yet because Frog-Man and Leap-Frog aren’t exactly the most popular characters)
Vincent Colorito was the original Leap-Frog starting in Daredevil #25. He had gone straight following the events of Iron Man #127. This issue marks a relapse into villainy.
Spider-Man acts like this is the first time he has interacted with Eugene or his father. This is far from the case as they have worked with each other in Marvel Team-Up #121 and 131 as well as the Spectacular Spider-Man #185.
Continuity Errors
Jerome lists off a number of Spider-Man villains. Among them he mentions Typeface. However, based on the chronological placement of this story, Typeface hadn’t made his first appearance yet. Typeface first appeared in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #23.
Topical References
Starting this issue I’m just going to address topical references in a separate heading. Readers should not take the following references literally. They are topical.
Eugene appears to have an original Playstation on his coffee table. Released in 1994, the Playstation was Sony Entertainment’s break out console system. The system’s lifespan ended in 2006 and there have been numerous successor systems. As I write this (June 2020), the Playstation 5 is scheduled to be released during the 2020 holiday season.
Eugene also has a CRT television. These old televisions have long become obsolete the final televisions of this kind were made in 2010.
Jerome refers to himself as a “Hip Hop Urkle”, this is a reference to the character Steve Urkle (played by actor Jaleel White) was a character who appeared on the sitcom Family Matters which ran from 1989 to 1998. Urkle was the nerdy next-door neighbor to the Winslow family.
Bridget made a joke about Eugene the punchline having something to do with Frogger. Frogger was an arcade game developed by Konami, first released in Japan in 1981. It was a simplistic top-down video game where players had to get a frog safely across a busy street to their home while avoiding cars and other hazards along the way. There have been countless sequels to the popular game, but none have been captured by the cultural zeitgeist quite like the original game.
Jerome quips that Vincent’s Leap-Frog costume was more obnoxious than Liberace. Liberace was an American pianist that was largely popular in the latter half of the 20th century until his death in the 1980s. He was known for his outrageous outfits.
