25 books deep into the illustrious and oddball world of Goosebumps. And it's time to delve into the world of comic books and supervillains. A book I was lukewarm on last time. Have things changed? Let's see with Attack of the Mutant.
ATTACK OF THE MUTANT
RELEASE MONTH: November, 1994
FRONT TAGLINE: He's no superhero. He's a supervillain!
COVER STORY
This cover definitely never scared me. I'm beginning to see a pattern in the 20s with that. But I still like it regardless. The Masked Mutant's design is fine. He does look like a supervillain fresh out of the 90s comic era. I do like the design of The Mutant's lair as well, despite it looking a little phallic. Some great use of color on the greenery and the sky look great too. I will say The Mutant's pose is a bit goofy, but it's far from offensive.
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...
Skipper Matthews has an awesome comic book collection.
His favorite one is called the Masked Mutant. It's about an evil supervillain who's out to rule the universe!
Skipper can't get enough of The Mutant. Until one day he gets lost in a strange part of town. And finds a building that looks exactly like The Mutant's secret headquarters. A building that appears and disappears.
Has Skipper read one too many comic books? Or does the Masked Mutant really live in Riverview Falls?
STORY
So, you ever wanted a nice reminder of one of the 90s worst trends? Well right off the bat this book gives us this nice reminder about the comic collecting craze of the 1990s. Around the time that people were realizing that old comics were suddenly super valuable, the market went crazy and comic collecting became out of control. Not to mention every kind of gimmick under the sun from issue zeros to metallic covers. And our protagonist, Skipper Matthews, is deep into that stuff. He's a comic book fan. Kind of the very definition of a stereotypical comic book fan at that. Described as being rather chubby because of course that would be Stine's definition of a comic fan. He's also not really good at getting his friend Wilson interested in comics either. Wilson's more into rubber stamps, which Skipper finds to be a weird interest. Oh great, he's one of THOSE comic fans...
Skipper's favorite comic involves the League of Good Guys as they face his favorite villain the Masked Mutant. The Masked Mutant has the ability to change his form into anything, but with one caveat. If he turns into liquid, he'll die, so, spoilers for later I guess. As Skipper reads his comic, and gets annoyed by his sister Mitzi, his dad shows up, angry about Skipper's love of these comics getting in the way of his school work. He threatens to get rid of the comics if Skipper doesn't straighten up. But Skipper knows it's just a veiled threat like always.
Cut to a day later when Skipper has to go to his orthodontist. He takes the bus and while heading there he sees a girl named Libby reading High School Harry and Beanhead. It's interesting that while the book mentions Captain America and Spawn by name, it's Archie that Stine seems to fear reprisal from. Especially since Skipper mocks High School Harry as not being real comics and that she's not a real comic collector. Oh great. He really is one of THOSE comic fans. If Skipper were real, good odds he'd be obsessed over the Snyder Cut and angry whenever Brie Larson so much as breathes. But, despite that, he seems to hit it off with Libby. Upon exiting the bus after missing his stop, Skipper notices something. A strange pink building with a green dome. A building that looks exactly like the Masked Mutant's headquarters. He thinks to look inside, but being late enough as it is, he opts out.
When talking to Wilson about it, he states that maybe the building was just the inspiration for the headquarters by the artist, Jimmy Starenko. Skipper thinks that might be the case, but he needs to check again. When he gets the chance to come back however, the building is gone. He runs into Libby again and they head to her place, where he once again gets angry over High School Harry and Beanhead, with him even mentioning how the Betty and Veronica characters look exactly the same. Jeez Stine, did Reggie Mantle piss in your coffee or something? Upon heading home, he sees a new Masked Mutant comic has arrived. He reads it and learns about an invisibility cloak on the Masked Mutant headquarters. That's incentive enough for Skipper to try again. After he buys new sneakers that is.
The day after buying new sneakers, Skipper and Libby head to the now empty lot where the headquarters was and sure enough, it was under an invisibility cloak. Upon entering, Skipper gets blasted with some sort of strange yellow beam that makes him feel strange, but Libby doesn't seem to feel anything. They look around and get lost inside for a bit before Skipper loses Libby. He finds himself in a room where he gets attacked by the Masked Mutant...'s cardboard cutout. He finds a stack of papers featuring art of the League of Good Guys, then notices that there's art of him as well. After finding Libby, the two kids make their leave.
Some time later, another comic arrives at Skipper's house, and this one features art of him entering the Masked Mutant's hideout. He reads further and sees that one of the good guys, the Galloping Gazelle, is captured and that only "the boy" can save him now. Skipper realizes that this means he has to return to the hideout. He makes it into the lair of the Mutant and sure enough he finds the Galloping Gazelle tied up. He unties the Gazelle and the two head off to find the Masked Mutant. Skipper has to avoid a disintegrator ray... that's not turned on apparently... but the two make it to the Mutant's office. The Mutant is there, ready to destroy Skipper. The Gazelle tries to stop him, but gets easily trounced, which causes him to leave Skipper to die. Okay then.
But before the Masked Mutant can finish Skipper off, Libby suddenly shows up. She grabs a disintegrator gun and blasts it at the Masked Mutant, turning him into a mass of molecules. Skipper is relieved... until Libby starts to transform into the Masked Mutant. Yes, she was the Mutant all along. The guy he just destroyed was his sidekick the Magnificent Molecule Man. The Mutant then tells Skipper the truth. That weird beam from earlier was a scanner. When Skipper passed it, it turned his molecules into ink dots, which turned him into a comic book character. The Mutant is once again ready to destroy Skipper, but Skipper manages to stall him, saying that he's a superhero too. He's the Colossal Elastic Boy and he can beat the Masked Mutant. The Mutant then asks what Skipper's weakness is, to which Skipper tells him it's sulfuric acid. The Masked Mutant transforms into acid, but since that's a liquid, it also kills him. That was surprisingly easy.
TWIST ENDING
Skipper returns home, happy to have defeated the Masked Mutant. He goes to get a slice of cake, but cuts his hand. But instead of blood, ink pours out of the wound. Skipper realizes his comic adventures are far from over.
CONCLUSION
I both love and hate this book. I love its concept. The idea of dealing with a real comic supervillain. And there are some really neat ideas about how the comics seem to predict what's going to happen next. There's also a fun conclusion with this one and one of the better twists in a while. That being said, my god do I not like Skipper. There's just this sense of arrogance to the character that makes him not fun to follow. Especially his constant need to act like his interests are superior to everyone else's. And given you can't go anywhere online anymore without Skipper-likes trying to make you feel bad for liking what you like, it doesn't exactly make me want to spend this adventure with him. The only other issue is similar to other issues where we don't get enough action with the villain until the very end of the book.
But those are honestly my biggest gripes. I like the structure of this book. It's paced well enough and does feel like Stine's love letter to comics, or hatred of them given how he seems to just dig into Archie hard. I wonder what Stine thinks of Riverdale. There's definitely a good use of comic book tropes and gimmicks which do work to keep the flow of the story strong throughout. I just really wish there was more of a reason for the Masked Mutant. He doesn't have any real motivation in the story except for wanting to kill Skipper for some reason. Tricking him in with the Libby disguise to lure him to his demise. I wish there was an explanation as to why he's fixated on Skipper. I just wish there were bigger stakes. It's a book about superhero comics, you can go as crazy as you want, Stine. But with that being said, I'll list this one more as being pretty average. My feelings haven't changed too much honestly. It's not perfect, it's not one with a protagonist you want to like, but it's still a solid Goosebumps book. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's just okay.
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