Super Mario Adventures
Super Mario Adventures is a Mario comic originally serialized in Nintendo Power magazine in twelve installments between the January to December 1992 issues alongside the The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past comic. The comic would later be serialized in Japan through CoroCoro Comic in 1993. The comic was written by Kentaro Takekuma and illustrated by Charlie Nozawa. While the comic tells a largely unique story, it is loosely based on Super Mario World, featuring many of the same enemies and characters.
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Issue 43 (December 1992)
After Mario kicks Bowser away, he is shocked to hear Toadstool calling Bowser "darling". Nevertheless, he grabs her and attempts to get her out, while Bowser sends his guards after them.
Elsewhere, Luigi and Yoshi have gotten lost in the basement looking for Mario. They find a room full of eggs, and Yoshi suddenly becomes ecstatic, pointing them out to Luigi. Luigi recalls that he and Mario hatched Yoshi out of a similar egg, and realizes that the other Yoshis have been trapped in these eggs. The two then set to work freeing them all.
Back at the party, Mario has been beaten and tied up while Bowser taunts him. Bowser orders the minister to continue the ceremony, but is suddenly interrupted by a guard informing him that the Yoshis have escaped. At this point, the Yoshis (with Luigi) come storming in, trampling over the enemies. Bowser orders the hypnotist to cast another spell, but he too is trampled, which breaks the spell on the princess, who promptly unties Mario. Bowser attempts to escape in the Clown Car, but Mario snags the propeller with the rope he was tied up with, causing it to crash into the cake.
Bowser hides inside the cake as the Yoshis start eating it, and as soon as he emerges, he finds Mario standing over him. Bowser tries to charge at him, but misses and falls into the cake again. The cake then starts to fall apart, and Mario jumps off before it collapses on top of Bowser. With Bowser finally defeated, Toadstool kisses Mario. The narration tells that the Yoshis were freed, and that the bros. and Toadstool returned to the Mushroom Kingdom to rest "until their next great adventure."
Similarities to the games
Prior to the release of this comic, most of the Mario series media outside of the video games, such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, differed from the games in terms of artistic style, character designs, storylines and settings. Super Mario Adventures, however, subverts many of these issues. The character designs are mostly faithful to the series' official artwork at the time, and the comic largely uses existing settings and characters.
In addition, Super Mario Adventures was one of the first forms of media that displayed traits or elements for certain characters that, even if not the direct inspiration, have since been used to define the characters in later media, such as:
- Luigi's fear of ghosts (most prominently shown beginning with Luigi's Mansion).
- Bowser showing a humorous side as well as his romantic interest in Peach (albeit preceded by the anime film Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen!, and first seen in the games starting with Paper Mario) and having a Magikoopa advisor (Kamek has since filled this role).
- Princess Toadstool's wedding dress design in the comic would provide the template for Peach's sundress in Super Mario Sunshine (albeit without sleeves) and her modern dress which was introduced in Mario Party 4.
- Peach's willingness to fight to save Mario (which she does in Super Princess Peach) and attempting to escape captivity (later seen in some of the Paper Mario games, Super Mario 3D Land and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam).
- The idea that Yoshi can say only his name, though later games show that while he verbally speaks his name, other characters can still understand what he's saying.
- Peach wearing overalls which she does in Super Mario Odyssey (albeit with a pink shirt underneath) in the post-game in some areas of the game and is one of the random outfits Peach wears after Mario places his hat on top of her castle after getting 999 Power Moons.
Graphic novel changes
When the comic was later reprinted in graphic novel format, some of the dialogue was altered from the original. These include the following:
- Part 2, page 8, panel 6: Luigi: "Tell my stomach that!" --> "Tell your stomach that!"
- Part 3, page 4, panel 8: Luigi: "Yahoo!" --> "Yikes! What a fight!"
- Part 6, page 8, panel 2: Toad: "Onto plan B!" --> "We have a delivery to make!"
- Part 8, page 8, panel 7: Mario: "Quit clowning around, Luigi! Look!" --> "Look! I wonder if anybody's home..."
- Part 9, page 1, panel 1: Mario: "Quit clowning around, Luigi! Look!" --> "I don't see any lights on..."
- Part 9, page 5, panel 8: Koopalings: "He's off the royal rocker!" --> "I hate it when he's right!"
- Part 11, page 4, panel 5: Mario: "Ow ow ow!" --> "Look out!"
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | マリオの大冒険 Mario no Daibōken |
Mario's Big Adventure |
Trivia
- Spike Tops are featured with a brownish color similar to the Galoombas as opposed to their standard red coloring.
- After Mario stomps the Wiggler in chapter three, its angry form is shown with an orange coloring instead of red.
- During Peach's dream sequence, Friendly Floyd is the pastor in Mario and Peach's wedding, yet Peach had not met Floyd until the next scene after she wakes up.
- Toad's fate is never revealed after he is captured, as he is not seen after that scene, nor is the fate of the other Toads after they're seen in the desert.
- In the same scene, Luigi mistakenly calls the Paratroopas "Mecha-Koopas".
- Bowser threatening to turn the Mushroom People into stone might be a reference to the manual in Super Mario Bros., as its plot summary states that Bowser brought a spell that turned the Mushroom Kingdom residents into inanimate objects, just like early in the comic.
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga would have a scenario where Luigi would have to take Peach's place, having to wear her dress and a wig, so as to retrieve the stolen Beanstar. However, in this instance, rather than wearing a mask, he simply covers his mustache with his hands, which ultimately gives him away.
