THE CHAIRMAN
THE CHAIRMAN
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human, technology or magic user
Occupation: Criminal
Affiliations: None known
Enemies: Spider-Man, two unnamed children, an unnamed police officer
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None known
Base of Operations: Presumably New York City
First Appearance: "Spider-Man Vs. the Chairman" (Hostess Twinkies advertisement, 1977)
Powers/Abilities: The Chairman carries a gun-like weapon which can transform human beings into straight-backed chairs; the effect eventually wears off.
History: Nothing is known about the Chairman or how he developed his chair-gun.
(Hostess ad) - The Chairman set out to steal an antique chair shipment but evidently didn't know where to find it. He used his chair-gun against a police officer who had presumably proven uncooperative, transforming the officer and some bystanders into chairs, then cornered Spider-Man, demanding to know where the shipment was. Spider-Man refused to tell him, and the Chairman prepared to fire upon Spider-Man, but two children, who had encountered the policeman earlier, threw Hostess Twinkies at the Chairman's gun, causing it to misfire and transform the Chairman himself into a chair. Spider-Man returned the Twinkies to the children, who offered some to an appreciative Chairman, who was literally carried off by the restored police officer; Spider-Man guessed that the Chairman would receive at least a ten-year prison sentence for his crimes, but whether or not this turned out to be the case is unrevealed.
Comments: Created by unidentified writer and artist.
It's unclear whether the Chairman's weapon was based on science or magic; he was dressed much like a stage magician, but that's inconclusive.
Of all the Hostess villains, only Icemaster has shown up in an Earth-616 title. He could have crossed over to Earth-616 from "Earth-Hostess, " but I say leave them on Earth-616 until proven otherwise. Nonetheless, until they do show up in regular continuity, they remain outside regular canon. Surely someone will write a story teaming them all together--Snood.
This is not true anymore as some Hostess ad villains were mentioned in the Fantastic Four Encyclopedia as natives of Earth-616. And lets not forget about Printout Man in the New Avengers Most Wanted Files.
The Chairman obviously has been taking fashion tips from Oswald C. Cobblepot.
Could the Chairman perhaps have some connection with Adam Able or the Chair that Walks Like a Man? Forget all that "Cockroach Conspiracy" stuff! That's probably all just a distraction to take everyone's attention off of the real threat...Beware of the unholy alliance of -- "The Fraudulent Furniture Federation"!!
Boy, Spider-man really came out looking bad in this one--he actually had to be saved by a couple of ordinary kids, and worse yet, he had to be saved from a lame-o loser like the Chairman! And the transformed Chairman was carried off to serve a ten-year prison sentence...for his sake, I sure hope his cell-mate wasn't the Blob!
--John Kaminski
Read another take on the Fraudulent Furniture Federation in the Cockroach Conspiracy entry.
You can get the whole story, and some clever commentary from Seanbaby's The Hostess Page. It might not meet with the Comics Code Authority's approval, so kids, ask your parents before checking that out!
Including info from both Ronald Byrd and John Kaminski.
CLARIFICATIONS: The Chairman should not be confused with:
images:
Spider-Man VS the Chairman, pan1 (Chairman main image)
Spider-Man VS the Chairman, pan3 (Chairman threatens Spider-Man)
Spider-Man VS the Chairman, pan5 (Chairman the chair)
Last updated: 03/20/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other 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