Origins

Steve Harmon, a high school student in Morristown, NJ, decides to get back at Winston, a classmate, who ratted Steve out to a teacher after a prank. Steve's plan is to disguise himself as a clown at a local carnival in order to get close enough to throw a pie in Winston's face. As Steve is about to make his move, Winston and his girlfriend are kidnapped by a trio of sinister clowns, who are actually extradimensional beings planning a full-scale invasion on Earth. The clowns open up a portal to Dimension Ecch and drag Winston and his girlfriend through. Steve follows after them attempting a rescue. Traveling through the portal affects Steve's molecular structure, making him rubbery and blob-like. He lands in a prison cell occupied by the former Scientist Supreme of Dimension Ecch. The scientist, who was imprisoned for opposing the invasion plan, explains that rather than having his atoms scattered throughout the universe, Steve was molecularly dis-discombobulated. This transformed him into a new form of matter-- a type of living, indestrutible, unstable molecules called electroplasm. The scientist gives Steve two gloves outfitted with "molecular stabilitroids" that will enable him to control the cohesion of his body's molecules. The gloves also enable Steve to carry weapons in hyperspace. He can make the hidden weapons appear at will, as if he simply plucked them out of thin air.

Creation

Slapstick was created by Len Kaminski and James Fry III and first appeared in his own mini-series, Slapstick issue 1 from 1992.

Major Story Arcs

Becoming Slapstick

The Scientist Supreme then goes on to encourage Steve to use his new abilities to stop the evil ruler of Dimension Ecch. After doing so, Steve rescues the kidnapped humans and returns them to Earth. His best friend Mike Peterson, one of the captives, recognizes Steve even in his altered state. Once Steve tells Mike everything that happened, Mike informs Steve that he has "Just had an origin" and suggests Steve come up with a new name under which he can fight crime. After rejecting several suggestions (including "The Joker" and "The Jester"), Steve finally names himself Slapstick.

The Initiative

After several solo adventures, Slapstick joins the New Warriors. He was, however, not with the team when they accidentally blew up Stamford, Connecticut. After Civil War, he was one of the Initiative recruits (along with Cloud 9, Komodo, MVP, Ultragirl, Trauma, Thor Girl, Debrii Fields, Hardball, and Rage). When camp instructor Gauntlet continued to criticize, insult and mock the New Warriors for their mistake, Slapstick became so angry that he ambushed Gauntlet and beat him nearly to death. After his assault, Slapstick painted "NW" (for New Warriors) across Gauntlet's chest in Gauntlet's own blood.

No one ever discovered Slapstick's crime (because Secretary Henry Gyrich ended the investigation for fear it would uncover some of his shady experiments like the Scarlet Spiders); however, both Justice and Rage (of the Initiative) nearly got jailed, and Gauntlet (who survived and returned to active duty) blamed his assault on the terrorist Ghost, a foe of Iron Man.

Eventually, Justice became so angry at the Initiative that he formed a New Warriors team, and Slapstick joined. Norman Osborn then branded the New Warriors wanted criminals.

The New Warriors entered Camp Hammond to retrieve the body of fallen comrade MVP, but found mad Thor cyborg-clone Ragnarok about to kill Gorilla Girl. The Initiative intervened and Slapstick (calling Ragnarok a "hippie" who needed to be introduced to "Whack-a-Mole") attacked Ragnarok. Ragnarok then easily defeated Slapstick. After the battle, Slapstick and the other New Warriors were successful in their mission to retrieve MVP's body.

Fear Itself

Commander Steve Rogers informed Prodigy of the unknown meteors that have fallen from the heavens and of the mass panic that is on the horizon. Rogers asked Prodigy to gather heroes on a volunteer basis to help keep the peace and lead a new Initiative---one where there is no forced conscription or registration. Prodigy agrees to become the leader of the new Initiative and most of the former Initiative members including Slapstick gather in Washington DC.

Merc for Money

When the anti-hero known as Solo used the identity of Deadpool (and made it popular), it got Deadpool thinking to start his own team of Deadpool heroes. Hoping to increase his popularity, Deadpool gathered a group of questionable anti-heroes, including Slaptstick. During this time, Slapstick was especially depressed. He had become stuck in his cartoon form. He longed for a normal life with a normal family, paying a prostitute and a local teen to pose as his wife and son.

After his teammate, Madcap, drove Deadpool fans crazy in an attempt to ruin Deadpool’s reputation, Deadpool dropped the requirement to wear his uniform. They started working more as a team rather than going out on individual missions. Team morale in the Merc for Money was at an all-time low when the Celestial Destructor attacked. The Mercs were assigned to crowd control, but when the Avengers were successful in ending the threat, Deadpool did not let them tag along to the victory party at Stark Tower. They considered taking the team from Deadpool and going independent.

With no way of funding a separate endeavor, the team decides to rob a bank, specifically the one Deadpool uses for his finances so that they would only be taking what is owed to them. Deadpool was ahead of them thanks to the precognitive abilities of The Profiler, a nuhuman who caused a second Civil War among the Avengers. In light of Deadpool thwarting their bank robbery, Slapstick finally quit for good.

Personality

Slapstick is a classic class clown, always quick with a joke or wisecrack, even if they're sometimes poorly timed or inappropriate. Since humor is his personal coping mechanism, he will often try to lighten the mood, or get a laugh from his teammates. Much of the time though, his teammates find him more annoying than funny.

Using his cartoon-like body, he is able to easily alter his appearance, often to appear more humorous. It's been noted that he has an anger problem, and the results can be catastrophic if he is pushed too far.

When Steve first got his powers, he was told he needed to use them to fight crime. Always out for a laugh, Steve replied that he would rather "play cruel tricks on" crime instead.

Powers and Abilities

He has similar characteristics to that of a cartoon character. These include limitless durability, increased speed, stamina, strength, and reflexes. He is able to stretch in a manner similar to Mr. Fantastic. In this form, he also has no genitalia. In an early solo adventure, Slapstick discovers that stimulating his body's electroplasm with ordinary electricity can increase his strength to near-Hulk-or-Thing-like levels.

Steve wears two gloves. The left glove enables Steve to go from human-form, to Slapstick form at the press of a bottom. The right glove enables to him to store massive quantities of items in sub-space receptacles dubbed "Infinite Pockets".

In his "infinite pockets", he has random stuffed toys including one of a sponge with a face, Spider-Man, a rubber chicken, duck, and frog. He also keeps a variety of weapons in there, including: a wooden mallet, chainsaw, flail, dynamite, a shield and a sword. He also carries several gag items, to facilitate his pulling pranks. These include an arrow-through-the-head hat, a boot on a stick, eye-pop glasses, a seltzer bottle, a party horn, and a whoopie cushion. He also carries a lot of junk, such as a trombone, bowling ball and pins, among other things.

Alternate Realities

Earth-1298

In the Mutant X reality Slapstick is a member of the Lethal Legion.