Fins and Roses



Fins and Roses was an issue of Valiant Comic's Super Mario Bros. series of comic books.

Plot Synopsis
While relaxing on a raft in the middle of Water Land while drinking some Koopa-Kola, Wendy O. Koopa begins to muse that her latest plan to defeat Mario, blowing him up using a large amount of weaponry, will either get her in big trouble with Bowser or gain his undying respect. As she begins to inspect all her weaponry, Stanley the Talking Fish suddenly appears and with his insane chatter and swooning, begins to annoy Wendy. As Wendy attempts to get rid of Stanley, the annoying fish takes an explosive that Wendy was holding, believing it to be a gift for him. Stanley dives underwater with Wendy's bomb to look for a present to give her. The angered Koopaling dives underwater and begins to swim after Stanley. Before Wendy can grab Stanley though, she is grabbed around the neck by Bertha, Stanley's old girlfriend. A panicking Stanley tells Bertha that Wendy was "flirting" with him, and an angered Bertha proceeds to throw Wendy back on to her raft.

As Wendy recovers from that, Stanley appears and begins apologizing to Wendy. Wendy, sick of Stanley, grabs a nearby bazooka from her weapons pile and starts trying to blast Stanley. Stanley narrowly escapes Wendy's line of fire by diving underwater, with Wendy, equipped with an assortment of weapons, diving in after him. Suddenly, Wendy sees that Stanley has arranged a party for her. Wendy, not caring about the party, begins to try and blast Stanley with her bazooka as all the party guest flee in fear. Bertha suddenly returns, believing that the party Stanley threw was for her, and breaks Wendy's bazooka. As Wendy and Bertha start arguing, Stanley swims to the surface and, finding Wendy's raft, starts relaxing on it. A few minutes later, Wendy is thrown to the surface and lands right on Stanley's lap.

Before Wendy can attack Stanley though, she is surprised to see Mario swimming by in the distance. Grabbing another bazooka, Wendy prepares to blast Mario, only to be distracted by Stanley. Wendy, deciding to use her last bazooka shot on Stanley instead of Mario, tries to blast him, though she misses, as Stanley simply dives underwater. Rushing away from Wendy, Stanley bumps into Bertha. Stanley begins to tell dozens of lies to Bertha, saying Wendy had tried to seduce him and buy him off by giving him a "Standard Military Issue Double-Charge Bomb". Bertha, picking up the bomb that Stanley took from Wendy earlier, hurls it to surface and begins swimming away with Stanley. As Wendy looks for Stanley, the bomb suddenly shoots to the surface and blows up her raft. Wendy, dazed, is aided to shore by Mario, who decides to call a ten-minute truce so he and Wendy can start saying nasty things about Stanley.

Trivia

 * The name of this book may be a parody of Guns N' Roses, an American hard rock band; it may also simply come from flowers and roses, a common gift.