This is Foggy Ruins of Time, a feature that provides the cultural context behind certain comic book characters/behaviors. You know, the sort of then-topical references that have faded into the “foggy ruins of time.” To wit, twenty years from now, a college senior watching episodes of "Seinfeld" will likely miss a lot of the then-topical pop culture humor (like the very specific references in “The Understudy” to the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal).
Every week or so, Eileen Gonzalez and I get together and chat about a different issue of the Avengers, starting from the beginning. The latest one just went up earlier today. One of the interesting things re-reading all of these stories is that there are a whole lot of cultural references that don't come to mind automatically in the year 2019. Heck, the most recent one we even discussed a melody that Stan Lee writes into the issue that we were unsure as to what he was referencing (but I bet a reader in 1966 would know the tune easily).
Anyhow, I'm pretty good at this stuff, but occasionally, a reference will fly over my head. A common example is when Lee is making a pun about something that was popular then, so I don't recognize the name because it's a play on the popular name of the era.
That was the case with Avengers #25 and an argument between Captain America and Hawkeye. Those two Avengers would fight ALL the time back then, but here, after Cap dismisses Hawkeye, Hawkeye makes a joke about playing "My Son, the Soldier" later...
Reader Barry O. and Michael R. both wrote in to note that he was making a reference to Allan Sherman's popular series of parody albums from the 1960s.
The first one, My Son, the Folk Singer, was a surprise smash success...
I'm partial to "The Ballad of Harry Lewis"...
There were two more albums before Sherman moved on with his song titles, My Son, the Celebrity and My Son, the Nut...
My Son, the Nut, had the surprise hit single, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh," about a kid writing home from camp...
When I was a kid, we would often listen to these records at my grandfather's. I think when he passed away, my sister might have even made sure to take an album or two.
Anyhow, thanks to Barry and Michael for helping point out a reference that snuck past me!
If anyone else has a suggestion for a future edition of Foggy Ruins of Time, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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