Where Did THAT Come From – Fallout Boy

Faster than an event speeding donut spender! More powerful than a local Addict! Able to leap long comment threads in a single bound! Look! Up in the TSTO-niverse! It’s a building! It’s a decoration! It’s Superheroes 2016!

In our silly lil game, we sometimes see things pop in that we have no clue as to their Origin. They seem familiar, but we just can’t pinpoint from where. So that is why we decided to make a fun lil reminder out of it. To let you know just Where did THAT Come From?

So the Superheroes Sequel arrived like a bolt of speed force lightning to our games and with its super arrival came none other than Fallout Boy. No, not the band led by Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz that’s name was inspired by the Best. Show. Ever. but the actual sidekick of Radioactive Man, Bart Simpson’s favorite comical booklet. Fallout Boy is the Dick Grayson/Jason Todd/Tim Drake/Damian Wayne to Radioactive Man. I’m personally thrilled that EA brought back this character for tappers in the 2016 TSTO Superheroes Sequel for free. I’m a comic nerd so having him in game is fun. But where does Fallout Boy originate. I thought it’d be fun to speed through the TV series and show off this super sidekick.

Our first true glimpse of Fallout Boy is in “Three Men and a Comic Book” (S2:E21). Bart goes to the 12th Annual “Close Encounter of the Comic Book Kind” Convention (this early in the show there was no Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con) as Bartman and goes to see Buddy Hodges, the actor who played Fallout Boy on TV. We also get to see an old Laramie cigarette ad he appeared in.

In the same episode, we see him proudly on the cover of Radioactive Man #9, the comic where he was introduced as a character before he became Radioactive Man’s ward.

In “Radioactive Man” (S7:E2), Springfield was picked as the site for the movie adaptation of Radioactive Man. The goal for the movie was to make sure it wasn’t as campy as the 1970s television show.

The kiddos of Springfield tried out for the role of the Atom Knight’s sidekick and even though Bart was really good and practiced hard for the part of Fallout Boy he was an inch too short and the part went to Milhouse.

Go figure that Milhouse didn’t really want to be famous. Mickey Rooney tried out for the part of Fallout Boy too when Milhouse quit show business.

A lot of the other sightings of a physical manifestation of Fallout Boy are Milhouse in the costume. In “My Big Fat Geek Wedding” (S15:E17), he’s among the people trying to get a signed sketch or snippet of Matt Groening’s hair. Milhouse dons his Fallout Boy costume again in “Married to the Blob” (S25:E10).This is pretty great if for no other reason than Harlan Ellison taunting Milhouse.

But there’s more appearances if you count the funny books in the show. In “Married to the Blob.” there’s also a signed Fallout Boy comic during Comic Book Guy’s sorrowful lament.

The same Fallout Boy comic book is also seen in “Homer the Whopper” (S21:E1). Everyman doesn’t use it for his power absorption power but who’d blame him for picking Iron Man?

In “Mom’s I’d Like to Forget” (S22:E10), we see Fallout Boy again in the comic which was Radioactive Man’s first appearance ever, Interesting Stories #27.

In “Four Regrettings and a Funeral” (S25:E3), he flies across the opening screen.

The last appearance is in “Opposites A-Frack” (S26:E5) and answers the age-old question of whether they ever made Fallout Boy action figures.  Who doesn’t love “expensive toys for grown-ups they don’t open or play with.”

So there you go friends, some origin info for Fallout Boy. I’m happy to see him in the game even if he’s more of a fictional character. There are other appearances but as a teaser, I’ve already written fun posts about Radioactive Man and Dr. Crab that will be up soon for all you dear constant readers. I sincerely hope you like them.  Do you think the character in TSTO is Buddy Hodges from the 1970s somehow transported to our town via the same rift in the space-time continuum that keeps bringing us U.S. Presidents? Ever wish you were a hero’s sidekick (Kid Flash wannabe here)? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments and happy tapping.

TTFN… Wookiee out!