First page of the comic

"Fins and Roses" is an issue ofValiant Comics'Super Mario Bros. series of comics. The title may be a parody ofGuns N' Roses, an American hard rock band; it may also simply come from flowers and roses, a common gift.

Plot synopsis[edit]

While relaxing on a raft in the middle ofWater Land while drinking someKoopa-Kola,Wendy O. Koopa begins to muse that her latest plan to defeatMario, blowing him up using a large amount of weaponry, will either get her in big trouble withKing Koopa or gain his undying respect. As she begins to inspect all her weaponry,Stanley the Talking Fish suddenly appears and, with his chatter and swooning, begins to pester Wendy. As Wendy attempts to get rid of Stanley, the fish takes an explosive that Wendy was holding, believing it to be a gift for him. Stanley dives underwater with Wendy'sbomb to look for a present to give her. The angeredKoopaling dives underwater and begins to swim after Stanley. Before Wendy can grab Stanley though, she is grabbed around the neck byBertha, Stanley's old girlfriend. A panicking Stanley tells Bertha that Wendy was "flirting" withhim, 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 several lies to Bertha, saying Wendy had tried to seduce him 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 terrible things about Stanley.

Characters[edit]

• Mario
• Wendy
• Stanley the Talking Fish
• Bertha
• Koopa Troopa
• Jelectro
• Lava Lotus
• Fish
• Koopa-Kola vendor

Notable mistakes and errors[edit]

• At the beginning of the comic,Wendy is wearing shoes, but whenStanley takes herbomb away, they disappear.
  • The inverse later happens towards the end of the comic, where she is not wearing shoes when she andMario travel down theWarp Pipe back to shore, but is later seen wearing shoes when they decide to call a truce with each other to say terrible things about Stanley.
• In "Love Flounders,"Bertha is orange in color with yellow lips and fins. In this comic, however, her body is colored red while her lips and fins are white, more closely resembling theBig Cheep Cheep'sartwork inSuper Mario Bros. 3.
• When Bertha bumps into Stanley, she bumps into him from the left, resulting in a pair bandages appearing on that side (used to denote an injury). However, the bandages swap to the right side when she kicks Wendy's bomb out of the water.

Version differences[edit]

• In the German translation,Wendy mentions that she is an inhabitant of Videoland; in the German translation of the comics, all of the stories are said to be set in Videoland, the setting ofCaptain N: The Game Master.

Names in other languages[edit]

References[edit]

• Super Mario Bros. (Valiant Comics) comics