Issue(s): Power Man #29
Cover Date: Feb 76
Title: "No one laughs at Mr. Fish!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
George Tuska - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker

Review/plot:
This fill-in issue (which came in the middle of a two-parter by Don McGregor) has achieved some notoriety due to the stupidity of its main bad guy, Mr. Fish (he's a commentator at Seanbaby's Hostess Page, for example).

Other than his origin (he fell into the water holding a radioactive isotope or something and came out a fish-man), there is nothing about his powers or motivations that has anything to do with being a fish. He's got some kind of gun that is able to hurt Luke Cage through his steel skin. The first time anyway. The next time Luke just kind of shrugs it off.

Mr. Fish gets a kick out of doing the whole super-villain thing, though. There's a funny scene (probably not intentional) where Mr. Fish basically says "I suppose you're wondering about my origin." and Luke Cage says "Nah, not really.", and then Mr. Fish proceeds to provide his 2+ page origin anyway.

With that out of the way, Cage throws Mr. Fish off the top of a building, and he dies.

Mr. Fish may be bizarre and stupid, but there's another character in this series that is downright offensive. He's a dwarf (note this is the second black dwarf henchmen we've seen in Power Man) named Shrike who is drawn as a real caricature (totally different than the style of the other characters in the book) and has the most stereotypical fake black diction ("I's jumpin!") i've seen in a Marvel comic.

    

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first and only appearance of Mr. Fish!

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue was a fill-in interrupting a 3-part story in Power Man #28 and #30-31. Placing this issue before that arc.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

You know looking at the cover of the comic, Mr. Fish actually looks formidable, like a super-villain Gill-man. But then you look at the interiors and...yeah, no wonder they needed the "no one laughs" blurb on the cover since that's all I'm doing.

It actually wasn't Mr.Fish's only appearance.
He showed up alongside Luke Cage's other lame foes to challenge the new Power Man. That was a mini-series from the late-2000s.

Those appearances were published after i wrote this entry, but i believe that it was determined that the later Mr. Fish was a brother of the original.

Whenever I get a condescending attitude about the comics of today, all I have to do to get grounded is look at some of the ones produced in the 70's.

Mr. Fish?

@ChrisKafka - I'm surprised that Mr. Fish's brother wasn't a guy who fell into a patch of potato plants while holding a radioactive isotope, transforming him into Mr. Chips :)

But at some point Mantlo would have assaulted the reader by having someone say "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"!

Ah...but think of the opportunities for their estate!

Instead of writing out Fish and Chips at those restaurants, they could have just put up a pic of those brothers!

Oh, the humanity.

I had this issue, back when I was young enough not to realize the inherent dumbness of the Mr. Fish character (the problematic nature of that dwarf went right over my head as well).

I have a soft spot for him, and similar bizarre and goofy 70s characters. I can't help myself.

Perhaps creative would've been better off just having Abe Vigoda as the story's villain.