Marvel Balls (Earth-8311, Spider-Ham foes)

MARVEL BALLS

Membership: Doctor Doom-Ball, Doctor Octo-Ball, Hobgobby-Ball, Hulk-Ball, Spidey-Ball, Thing-Ball

Purpose: Chaos and destruction

Aliases: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Yak Nicholson, Spider-Ham, Croctor Strange, others in New York City, USA

Base of Operations: Their own dimension; briefly Earth-8311

First Appearance: Marvel Tales II#209/2 (March, 1988)

Powers: About 5" in diameter, Marvel Balls display high levels of aggression, a glee for destruction, gang-like mentality plus a tendency for occasional simplistic puns. Marvel Balls have at least superhuman durability; coupled with their self-propelled levitation and targeted bouncing, they can cause significant damage to buildings and cars. Like many bullies, when their aggression is countered by someone meaner, they back down. They also have individual characteristics (discussed in their subprofiles). Marvel Balls reflect the appearance of the heads of prominent characters from Earth-616.

History:
(Marvel Tales II#209/2 (fb) - BTS) - Marvel Balls lived in their own dimension. A bizarre coincidence of soda accidentally falling onto a TV broadcasting the scary Nite Lite Zone show (hosted by Rod Sturgeon) opened a portal to Earth-8311.

(Marvel Tales II#209/2) - The aggressive Marvel Balls burst through the TV set into the apartment of Peter Porker (secretly the heroic Spider-Ham) and they bashed around the room before knocking him out and smashing through the window to get outside.

(Marvel Tales II#209/2 (fb) - BTS) - The mystic Croctor Strange became aware of the Marvel Balls' presence on Earth-8311.

(Marvel Tales II#209/2) - Strange revived Porker and suggested a team-up to stop the devastating Marvel Balls. Meanwhile, the Balls bashed around the city streets, berating each other; Spidey-Ball spat webbing at Hobgobby-Ball; Hulk-Ball flattened a car; Doom demanded fealty from the fellow Balls so that it could rule Earth; Thing-Ball just charged through them to defuse the infighting and continue destruction instead.

(Marvel Tales II#210/2) - The Marvel Balls continued to cause extensive property damage and mental trauma to the populace. The Balls tried to get into a swanky ballroom nightclub, but were scared away by the bouncer, so they fled and clobbered the nearby actor Yak Nicholson, before going off to cause more property damage. But Spider-Ham caught up with the bouncing vandals and successfully captured them in a juggling loop, carefully carrying them to a mini-golf park where Strange had found a way to return the Marvel Balls from whence they came. Spider-Ham lobbed each orb to Strange and he used a necromantic putter to send them through a mystical matrix in the novelty clown's mouth at the 18th hole. Croctor Strange was sure the Marvel Balls would never return.

Comments: Created by Steve Mellor & Joe Albelo.

Were there other Marvel Balls? Just because these six were banished, does that mean that all other (if there were other) Marvel Balls are likewise cut off from Earth-8311? And I'm assuming/hoping it was a pocket dimension rather than a whole other alternate reality, but who knows? And do they have any relation to the (mostly) benevolent Marvel Tsum Tsums (2016)?

Marvel Balls appear to be the Earth-8311 version of Earth-616's Madballs (licensed, originally released 1986) with an accompanying pun-filled 10-issue Marvel Comic, which had a curious copycat toy called Ugly Balls advertised in DC & Marvel comics in 1987. See images below. I like the idea of bouncy Marvel Balls, but with the trademark of Madballs still active, I doubt you'll see these Balls released again.

Profile by Grendel Prime.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Marvel Balls have no known connections to:

BADBALLS - bowling balls chemically transformed into nasty sentient balls, targeted Madballs--Madballs#3/1
MADBALLS - junk accidentally mutated into grotesque sentient joking yet heroic spherical objects--Madballs#1/1
MARVEL TSUM TSUMS - mostly benevolent bolster-like Marvel-themed creatures--Marvel Tsum Tsum#1
or any other "Marvel" or "Balls" characters/groups/races/items

Doctor Doom-Ball

Doctor Doom-Ball was one of the six destructive Marvel Balls that traveled through a portal accidentally created by Peter Porker (secretly the heroic Spider-Ham) from their dimension to Earth-8311. They bashed around Porker's apartment before knocking him out and smashing through a window to wreak much more havoc outside. They berated each other but Doom-Ball became more agitated and bossy, demanding subservience from its fellow Marvel Balls to help in the conquest of Earth, but Thing-Ball pushed through, breaking up the scuffle and they resumed their chaos. The sorcerer Croctor Strange came up with a plan to expel the Marvel Balls and had Spider-Ham catch them in a juggling loop. Spider-Ham lobbed them to Strange in a mini-golf park and Strange putted them through a mystically enhanced golfing hole back to their dimension.