Little Cool Things: A Sometimes Snack

No, I don't mean little cool things like me.



(Tho' I am small, and I am awesome.)

No, I'm talking about little cool things in comics. Superhero comic books usually focus on the big: the boistrous, the loud, the bombastic—super-guys getting punched through buildings, massive tidal waves sweeping towards a costal city, asteroids plunging out of the sky, galaxies exploding. But every once in a while you have to stop and eat smell the roses: focus past the spandex unstable-molecule clad supes to the background and spy a small detail placed there by the artist: one that isn't integral to the plot but which is a delightful little bit of stage dressing.

Here's a page from the good old days when Peter Parker, his aunt, and his soon-to-be forgotten wife lived in Avengers Tower in mid-town Manhattan, where Aunt May had a romance with Edwin Jarvis (hopefully before he was replaced by a Skrull) and the bottom of the Civil War crossover market hadn't yet fallen.


Page from I ♥ Marvel: Web of Romance one-shot (April 2006), script by Tom Beland, pencils by Cory Walker, inks by Cliff Rathburn, colors by Matt Milla, letters by Dave Sharpe

Granted, not the most action-heavy of pages (it is a beautiful little love tale between Peter and Mary Jane...ya know, the kind Joe Quesada said didn't make interesting storytelling), but your eye is drawn to the bright red and blue of Spidey and his movement...wait a minute, what is he swinging from in the first panel? The Goodyear Blimp?

Anyway, my point, and I do have one, is the first and only appearance of one of the coolest background props and an item I want to have my very very self:

The Iron Man golden armor cookie jar!

That thing is a cute as a snickerdoodle.

So, what have we learned? To make sure you check the details for the little fun things in comic book panels. Also: that Tony Stark has a cookie jar of himself. That could not be more awesome.