Flashback Friday: Serpentino

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Serpentino!

This is going to be a quick one, but sometimes you gotta take what you can get.

Back in the 70s, ads in comic books would sometimes be presented as a comics page itself. The most famous of these were Hostess, and you can check out a . . . host . . . of examples at seanbaby.com. Here's just one.

But they were created for other products, too, and one such ad for a Rubik's Cube kind of puzzle called the Magic Snake appeared in Marvel Team-Up #126 (December 1982). In the ad, Hulk fights a new villain named Serpentino, who is then distracted from the fight by a Magic Snake puzzle.

Serpentino WAS included in the Marvel Universe eventually, but don't be surprised if you've never heard of him. His only appearance was in a text feature in New Avengers Most Wanted Files (October 2005) that said he's remained in prison since his initial capture.

But hey, it still counts!