BAND of the BLAND

 

 

 

 

 

 

Membership: (Left to right) Black Hole (Morton Kribbee), Doctor Angst (Floyd Mangles), (on the right, top to bottom) Sitting Bullseye (Oliver Bedwette), Spanker (Fred Hovel), Tillie the Hun (Matilda von Tromp)

Affiliations: Presumably le Beaver (Pierre Dentfris), Black Talon (Thibodaux Boudreaux), Jackpot, Jokester, Greedy Killerwatt, Kong Lomerate, Maller, Pro-Rata, Puffin, Quizling, and Wally Sidney (see comments);
    unrevealed relationship with Brotherhood of Evil Prepositions (Amonger, Arounder, Betweener, Of, Underneather, Withiner), Galactongue

Enemies: Critic, Defenders (Dr. Stephen Strange, Hulk/Bruce Banner, Nighthawk/Kyle Richmond, Valkyrie/Brunnhilde), Howard the Duck, Louise Mason, She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), Terror (Laslo Pevely), Brent Wilcox;
    presumably Andy the Angel, Chirreep, Jennifer Kale, Korrek, Master C'haaj, Hemlock Shoals, Claude Starkowski (see comments)

Base of Operations: Cleveland, Ohio, most of New Jersey

First Appearance: Marvel Treasury Edition#12 (1976)

History:
(Marvel Treasury Edition#12) - The Band of the Bland is a group of mundane, unspectacular costumed criminals. They were first organized by Doctor Angst to assassinate Howard the Duck, who was at the time the presidential candidate for the All Night Party. Angst duped them into believing that they were in it solely to rise above their current levels and achieve fame. Angst himself was doing it for profit, as he was hired by unnamed parties. He also tricked them into believing he had enhanced their powers with the mystic placebo known as Promethium. The Band was defeated by Howard and the Defenders. Angst was sent to prison, and although the others probably went as well, they were released before he was.

(Marvel Treasury Edition#12 (fb) - BTS) - Apparently hired by unidentified parties to assassinate Howard the Duck, who was at the time the presidential candidate for the All Night Party, mundane mystic Dr. Angst contacted Black Hole, Sitting Bullseye, Spanker, and Tillie the Hun and instructed them to meet in Central Park at midnight.

(Marvel Treasury Edition#12) - The recruits met, introduced themselves, and discussed their backgrounds. After their illegal campfire, attracted the NYPD, the recruits took out the police. Angst then appeared introduced himself and told them that while they were all washouts thus far, he offered them the chance to achieve fame and wealth by joining him in his mission to assassinate Howard the Duck.

    Intrigued, the others joined Angst at his apartment over the seedy Feelgood's Funhouse massage parlor, where he tricked them into believing he had enhanced their powers with the mystic placebo known as Promethium.

    After Angst arranged a spell that took out Dr. Strange, Sitting Bullseye and the other three broke into Dr. Strange's sanctum sanctorum, to which Howard had unwittingly traveled with Beverly Switzler seeking a room for rent.

    Angst and his four agents were defeated by Howard and the Defenders.

(Sensational She-Hulk I#15 (fb) - BTS) - Angst was imprisoned in Wormwall prison, and the Band disbanded, pursuing their own mundane lives.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II" (fb) - BTS) - Dr. Angst was transported -- along with the rest of the Band of the Bland (Black Hole, Sitting Bullseye, Spanker, Tillie the Hun), as well as le Beaver, Black Talon, Bzzk J'oh, Dr. Bong, Jackpot, Jokester, Greedy Killerwatt, Kong-Lomerate, Maller, Pro-Rata, Puffin, Quizling, and Wally Sidney -- to within a giant fire hydrant-like construct in an interdimensional space between Reality-616 and Reality-791021 (mirroring the storyline generated by the dark matter-powered Poporb of Krylorian techno-artist Chirreep).

    Angst conjured a giant running shoe in the air above the combatants. When Doctor Bong demanded those present cease their brawling, the Spanker requested a second opinion. Dr. Angst concurred with Bong and told everyone, "Now cut it out, or I'll jog all over you!"

    In addition to this construct, a motorhome (specifically a Winnebago)-like structure -- containing Andy the Angel, Dakimh the Enchanter, Jennifer Kale, Korrek the Barbarian, Man-Thing, Master C'haaj, Hemlock Shoals, Claude Starkowski -- was also present.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II") - After Howard the Duck encountered the Winnebago group, Hemlock Shoals identified the hydrant group. Dakimh noted that, apart from their evil, they seemed to have little in common...except that they all wanted Howard dead.


    As Howard attempted to depart and met up with Chirreep, the monstrous mouth Galactongue appeared and disgorged an entire galaxy. As the contents formed a planet with an immense office building, Dakimh noted with concern the objects streaking toward them: The Brotherhood of Evil Prepositions (Amonger, Arounder, Betweener, Of, Underneather, Withiner) then appeared and challenged both groups to "Play both ends against the middle, and all you desire shall be yours."

    Both groups were transported to the office building on the planet formed from contents disgorged by Galactongue; Angst's group arrived in the boardroom.

(Steve Gerber's unpublished script for Howard the Duck#1 "Secret Crisis II") - While Kong Lomerate stood at the head of the table, Dr. Angst sat on Kong's left and Dr. Bong sat on Kong's right. Seated on Angst's side of the table (from nearest to farthest) were Le Beaver, Black Hole, Sitting Bullseye, Tillie the Hun, the Spanker, Jackpot, and Black Talon.

    Kong noted that the Prepositions had gathered them together for a reason, and Angst suggested it was some grand purpose, something to do with the Winnebago they had seen from space.

    Kong Lomerate led the villains in a plot to destroy the other group.

    While Kong led Maller, Jackpot, and Greedy Killerwatt to attack Howard and Chireep, Angst was presumably involved with another part of their divide-and-conquer strategy, likely targeting Andy the Angel, Dakimh the Enchanter, Jennifer Kale, Korrek the Barbarian, Man-Thing, Master C'haaj (sp?), Hemlock Shoals, and Claude Starkowski.

    Angst's involvement in this conflict is not revealed.

(Sensational She-Hulk I#14-15 (fb)) - After some time in prison,  Dr. Angst summoned the Plunger of Patooti to reverse the suction of a distant singularity. This created the Cosmic Blowhole, from which spewed, among other things, a number of Compaction Receptacles. These Receptacles were created by unrevealed means and unidentified beings. How they came to be inside the singularity is similarly unrevealed, but each served to contain an Encroachiverse. These were failed dimensions, such as the Baloney-verse or the Dimension of Suicide, which were compacted to prevent them from interacting with viable realities.

(Sensational She-Hulk I#14) - A short time ago the Receptacle containing the Baloney-verse landed on Earth, in Mount Pookie, Vermont (later known as Mount Pressure). A native escaped to empower the Reverend Wildmoon, but both were eventually destroyed in battle with the She-Hulk. Handling of the Receptacle (or the Anomaly, as it was referred to in Mt. Pressure), caused the Baloney-verse to begin to expand and Encroach on the space of the Earth dimension.

(Sensational She-Hulk I#15-17) - Around the same time that a large number of Receptacles were heading to Earth, Angst made his escape from prison. He went on to relocate and reorganize the Band of the Bland to assist him. As per his plans, humans were poking and prodding the Receptacles, causing each of the pocket universes to begin to enlarge. With the large number of universes expanding and trying to occupy the same space at the same time, all of the Encroachiverses and the rest of Earth's dimension would destroy each other. Angst referred to this as the Cosmic Squish Principle.

    Angst then set up five locus points, which would be the only five places in the universe exempted from the Squish. He chose points that were, in his mind, the dullest places in current existence: a square block in Manhattan including Rad Ronin's Fujiyama Funhouse; Henderson, Nevada; El Segundo, California; most of New Jersey; and the planet Sqazzl. Around these five locus points, Angst sought to form a new universe, the Insipiverse, the quintessential distillation of cosmic tedium.

    A member of the race of Critics had observed the creation of the Blowhole, and sought to prevent the Cosmic Squish. To this end, he summoned Howard the Duck, and the formerly inactive hero, the Terror, to assist She-Hulk and her friends, Louise Mason and Brent Wilcox. Angst saw these six (that would be including the Critic) as the only threat to the success of his plans, and brought the Band to wipe them out. However, the heroes held their own against the Band, and Wilcox came upon the idea to force the Black Hole to contain all the Receptacles within his gravity well. The Critic summoned all of the Receptacles and their associated leaking Encroachiverses, which were sucked into the gravity well, preventing their expansion. The Critic brought Black Hole with him to prevent him from releasing his contents, and then wiped the memory of the events from the minds of those involved.

COMMENTS: Created by Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson.

    Gerber's unpublished script (http://www.stevegerber.com/writings/scripts/index.php3):

images: (without ads)
    Sensational She-Hulk I#17, p12, pan4 (Band of the Bland)

Appearances:
Marvel Treasury Edition#12 (1976) - Steve Gerber (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Sensational She-Hulk I#15-17 (May-July, 1990) - Steve Gerber (writer), Bryan Hitch (pencils), Jim Sanders III (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)

First Posted: 02/04/2002
Last updated: 06/17/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Groups