Okay, look, I like pun names as much as anyone else and probably more than is healthy.
But a new villain has been announced for the Spider-Man musical who has a costume composed of Swiss Army knives, which I suppose can be pretty vicious.
And her name is Swiss Miss?
Look, I desperately want to see the musical be a hit, if for no other reason than that it’s always fun to see nay-sayers get it in the teeth. But really, if it’s a villain, and you’ve got two and a half hours to establish her as a threat, naming her after a brand of hot cocoa really isn’t the way to go. Unless they’re going for full-blown camp, in which case, well, okay, good luck with that. It didn’t serve Superman’s Broadway musical well in 1966, and that was back when superhero camp was big. Campy musicals can succeed, but they typically need smaller, preferably off-Broadway venues. On Broadway, reaction to camp usually comes in the form of derision or disgust. Just ask the audience members who walked out halfway through “Dance of the Vampires.” (Kathleen and I saw it twice; we’re just that twisted, and the show was that much of a train wreck that we had to see it a second time to confirm what we saw the first time.)
There’s gotta be better names for her. “Blade” is obviously a no-go, but maybe Cutter? Slice-And-Dice? B-Sharp? Just…not cocoa.
PAD
Originally published November 26, 1993, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1045
• 
Recent Comments