On the Flip Side: Disco Death Ray!

Place:  The back covers of DC Comics cover dated Nov. 1978.

Time:  The height of disco dancing mania!

Subject:  AAU Shuperstar vs. The Dirty Sneaker

Subtext:  American consumer culture banishes all remaining vestiges of its hippie past.

This ad from AAU SHOES, an early casualty of the sneaker wars (click on the image for a larger view), features AAU's hero-spokesmodel Shuperstar battling...well...pretty much just an icky hippie named The Dirty Sneaker.

Let's take a look at Dirty Sneaker's gameplan:

Apparently Dirty Sneaker's set to destroy the entire planet with his dirty dancing sneaker death ray (not to be confused with this). Ironically, said death ray is set to activate when the BeeGees' "Stayin' Alive" is played!  Perceptive as ever, AAU Shuperstar believes Dirty Sneaker is merely trying to horn in on the "boogie contest".

(click on the panels for a larger view)

Who's have guessed that one day we'd have to deal with real life shoe-themed terrorists, but back in 1978, it was funny to plan mass-murder with a shoe theme!  Ha ha!

(click on the panels for a larger view)

I'm not sure what's more irritating: AAU Shuperstar's garish late 70's sweatsuit or his excruciating shoe-based puns.  However, the important thing here is to note the banishment of the American youth culture's recent hippie past....powerfully symbolized by preppy, blow-dried AAU Shuperstar's well-placed kick to the Dirty Sneaker's dingy derriere.

(you know the drill)

It's not clear if AAU Shuperstar's blazing red panel of triumphant chest-thumping means that Dirty Sneaker is alive or dead....although the references to "space garbage" and "good-bye forever" indicates a darker side to Shupie's clean cut facade.

No matter...the disco kids are happy to get back to their boogie contest now that Dirty Sneaker's been banished from their midst.

Why, with a snazzy shoe like that, who wouldn't want to kick a smelly hippie into orbit?