The Lonely Life of Paste Pot Pete

And now, your Spidey Super Stories Moment of Ennui for the night:

 

 

Aside from the fact that he apparently lives in a pretty swanky apartment, I think we can all be thankful that we’re not the Trapster.

Still, though, the angle of the shot, the goofy, garish super-villain outfit in the middle of the trappings of suburbia, the way he’s slumped in the chair, adamantly refusing to even consider the possibility that his traps actually aren’t any good…. Could this be a bit of actual pathos in the pages of Spidey Super Stories?!

 

Genuine emotional content appears, appropriately enough, in SSS #57 the final issue of the greatest series in Marvel Comics History.

24 thoughts on “The Lonely Life of Paste Pot Pete

  1. He actually wears the costume even when he doesn’t have to. Must be pretty comfortable.

    Thats a bitchin’ dragon wallpaper though.

  2. In some way I’d imagine Trapster would be the most effective villain ever in the Marvel Universe if he’d just sit around in his really nice looking apartment and be depressed about his traps.

    What’s the rent on that thing anyway?

  3. When it comes to the Trapster, I always think of that issue of the FF when the Baxter Building and the FF’s robot secretary completely kicked his ass. Poor bastard.

    Still, ol’ Paste-Pot Pete’s apparently doing pretty well for himself, if that’s where he lives.

  4. He doesn’t live there, he justs breaks into swanky houses and sits on the most central chair and pretends.
    Are the windows a bit Escher? They seem to be floating in a vague intersection of wall and floor.

  5. For me, the definitive Trapster story wasn’t in the comics, but in a short story collection called The Ultimate Super-Villains: New Stories Featuring Marvel’s Deadliest Villains.

    In “Traps,” ol’ Paste-Pot finds success as a late-night infomercial host hawking his patented, all-purpose adhesive…until he runs afoul of a twistedly vindictive Wizard and a completely tool-icious USAgent.

    (And since our host loves himself some Enforcers, I’ll also mention the similar Untold Tales of Spider-Man collection, which has a great story called “The Ballad of Fancy Dan.” That tale alone is worth a purchase, but another–“The Stalking Of John Doe,” about an injured amnesiac web-slinger hunted in a mental hospital–confirms the book as a must-own.)

  6. And of course, the brilliance of the scene is that he’s essentially saying, “Everyone thinks my traps are bad, just because they don’t work for their intended purpose.” Well, yes, that is the dictionary definition. Thanks for clearing that up.

  7. The high-angle perspective is to conceal from younger readers the pistol in Trapster’s left hand. Don’t do it, Pete! You’ve got so much to live for! Just look at that happenin’ lamp!

  8. Is he speaking in haiku?

    Actually, I think he’s sobbing.

    The Marvel Universe is not an easy one.

  9. I would kill to see what periodicals ol’ Paste Pot Pete left astrewn on the Lack coffee table in view. Was it from last night’s leisure time on the sofa?

  10. That doesn’t really look like the trapster. It looks more like a badly colored Mammoth.

  11. The really odd thing is that Spidey gets out of EVERY trap he places.

    Even the ones for the FF, the Avengers, and, in Marvel Vs. DC, Batman.

  12. Thing is, he’s out of luck no matter what.

    “Hey, pal – your lint trap didn’t do squat! My dryer vent clogged up after three loads! You owe us $500!”

    “I’m stopping payment on our check because our house is still overrun by mice. They just wiggled their way out of those gizmos you scattered everywhere!”

    “Uh – aren’t trapdoors supposed to swing UP, just in case something goes horribly wrong?”

    Silence, minion! I, the Trapster, know exactly what I’m doing!

  13. “What’s the rent on that thing anyway?”

    He made some media deals around 2000/2001 with third-world companies, taking advantage of their confusion of Trapster and Napster.