Cotton Club

I like to make my rounds to grocery stores, drug stores, dollar stores and the like to keep an eye on what's happening in the Super Hero Food world.  You never know what you'll find and you never know where you'll find it.  To that end, I like to swing by Toys 'R' Us every now and then.  They have a small little candy section that delivers from time to time.  In fact, it's where I found our latest bag of super hero cotton candy:

Among the team's other accomplishments, the Justice League has now successfully broken into the world of spun sugar.  Justice League Cotton Candy is here and we're going to have to get used to it.

It looks like we're also going to have to get used to Martian Manhunter being scrubbed from JL history.  While it was rare for him to show up on various food products from the beginning, it is now a given that Cyborg will be in his place for now and...forever?  At least Aquaman made the cut.

Looks like the flavor breakdown includes pink vanilla and blue raspberry.  While blue raspberries don't occur in nature, they have been a part of kids kids' candy and drinks for many years now.  So there's no surprise there.  Pink Vanilla, though?  That seems to be something that only happens in the Cotton Candy World.  Which is weird because "cotton candy" has been a flavor in and of itself for a good long while.  So it's weird that vanilla got an invitation to this party.

And it looks like this.  It's fairly similar to the Batman Cotton Candy from awhile back.  Two flavors for the price of one!  So if you want to add a little carnival flair to your day-to-day life you need only to head to Toys 'R' Us (while supplies last).

Captain's Crunch

This hasn't been the best summer for super hero food but it's been pretty darn good.  I still haven't finished off both boxes of Batman v Superman cereal and now the Breakfast Gods have smiled again and given us the gift of Civil War Cereal:

Make no mistake though, despite how it looks the above pic, there is only one Civil War cereal.  One side has Cap and the other side has Iron Man.  I guess as you eat you can pick a side to either stare at admirably or glare at ominously depending on your hashtag team affiliation. 

Inside you get the standard sweetened cereal and marshmallows:

I genuinely wonder why they went with circular marshmallows as opposed to red, white and blue star shaped marshmallows.  If Lucky Charms could give us multiple marshmallow shapes in the 70's, surely the Avengers have that technology as well.

I'll leave you with the side of the box, commentary free.  Mainly because I don't have anything interesting to say about it:

Justice Desserts

I'm pretty sure there is a Cold Stone Creamery near me but I don't think I've ever been to one.  Which is a shame because I totally missed out on the recent Batman v Superman promotion.  Just like similar past promotions from Baskin-Robbins, these guys were way too subtle with their marketing and it was totally off my radar.  That being said, let's take a quick look at the gloomy trinity's sweet treats:

Each one of the big three got their own themed sundae.  I still haven't seen this movie but I can't imagine anyone associated with it would enjoy ice cream.  Even if they had their own sundae designed for them.  It would get in the way of the brooding.  Of course I am more than happy to dive into them.  Let's take a closer look:

Here's the breakdown:

• "Batman's Chocolate Cookie Crusade" - Yeah, Batman always gets chocolate as a flavor.  That's a no-brainer.
• "Superman's Kryptonian Cake Sensation" - A lot of times you get the whole "Green Kryptonite" theme but they went with the yellow, blue and red sprinkles instead.  And cake!
• "Wonder Woman's Strawberry Warrior" - I'll be honest, those look like raspberries to me.  Also, the strawberry option always seem to be the "girly" option and I don't think that's particularly necessary.  I see here as more of a peanut butter cookie flavor, maybe?

Need to feed a group?  Let them eat cake:

They went with the "Superman Punching the Batmobile" theme.  Seems like they could have done a little bit more with this one but we get what we get...with ice cream and with movies.

Team Effort

The time has come for us to take a long hard look at Avengers Granola Bars.  Just in time for Civil War, these guys put Captain America front and center on the box.  He's definitely the star of the moment and it's his time to shine.

Of course the back of the box is fair game for entertainment.  They're forgoing the puzzle and game route in favor of the the old "cut out your own trading card" chestnut.  This box had the Hulk.  I searched the shelves to see what other characters were in the mix but it looks like the store only got the Hulk shipment.

I'm always tempted to cut these things out but, of course, I never do.  I like to think that lots of other people do though.  Years from now the things we've protected from sunlight and dust in the practice of keeping so called "collectibles" in perfect shape will be completely upstaged by the wonderment of the perfectly cut back-of-the-box trading card.  That's the world I want to live in.

Cap and Hulk are joined by the rest of the gang on the box and on the "Special Character Wrappers":

As usual, no Hawkeye. And the new kids (Scarlet Witch, the Vision, Ant-Man, etc) didn't make the cut either.  Looks like the lunch box bouncer has has very specific parameters when it comes to letting certain heroes behind the velvet rope.

UPDATE:  Looks like there's an Iron Man version of the box too.  Which is odd that they are "Avengers Bars" instead of "Civil War Bars":

Pop Stars

Your new breakfast of champions comes in the form of Justice League Pop Tarts.  While there is currently a deluge of Batman v Superman stuff out there right now, these guys are specifically branded as "Justice League."

Sure it has the "Big 3" plastered on the front, who happen to also share screen time in the movie but plenty of their team mates also show up to tell you the good news about this year's most exciting breakfast treat:

        

 And the entire roster shows up on the back of the box doing their patented "Justice League Lineup Pose" including some First Appearance info, and of course secret identity info:

 And everybody gets a short bio underneath the posing.  Except for Cyborg for some reason.  I'm not too inclined to play the race card but this certainly raises few eyebrows (at least two).  While they may be stingy with the bios, they definitely went all out when it comes to the actual food:

 If you want to get technical, then sure, Catwoman was technically a part of the Justice League line up during the Grant Morrison years but I've never bought into the idea of Robin being in the League.  Sure, maybe Batman let him tag along to one or two of the meetings but he never got his membership card.

To put this into a historical perspective (which I know you were begging for), superheroes are no stranger to the toaster pastry genre.  Back in the Spider-Man movie heyday we got two different versions:

War Rations

(Previously):

 Batman v Superman Fruit Snacks - - Amazing Spider-Man 2 Fruit Snacks

Iron Man 3 Fruit Snacks - - Captain America Fruit Snacks - - Superman Fruit Snacks

Super Hero Squad Fruit Snacks - - Amazing Spider-Man Fruit Snacks - - Batman Fruit Snacks

Avengers Fruit Snacks

 War, what is it good for?  In this instance a brand new box of Fruit Snacks.  Summer is coming and the season's theme is "heroes fighting heroes."  We've covered some Batman v Superman nosh but now it's Marvel's turn.  In preparation for Captain America: Civil War the movie, we get Captain America: Civil War the fruit snacks!

Much like Cap's last foray into the fruit snack genre, he must share the billing.  Not only does his antagonist Iron Man join him, but a few other characters show up and some even make their fruit snack debut.  Let's check out the team line ups:

Team Cap: Captain America, Ant-Man & Hawkeye
Team Tony: Iron Man, Black Widow & Black Panther

While Black Widow and Hawkeye have been on a package or two and possibly on some actual food, this is (to my knowledge) the freshman effort by both Ant-Man and Black Panther.  Welcome aboard guys!

Man and Superman

Ok, yeah, it's on now.  It's going to be one heck of a summer...in terms of superhero food.  You've probably seen these already but I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't have the Superman v. Batman cereal blog entry.  Up, up and away:

I recently referred to Marvel & DC's summer movie promotions this year as quality vs. quantity.  But don't mistake that for an unnecessary slam against DC.  There is definitely something to be said for quantity and DC is definitely going for it with the whole "one of each" approach. 

So we get Superman Caramel Crunch Cereal and Batman Chocolate Strawberry Cereal.  Two for the price of two!  When it comes to this clash of titans you really can vote with your wallet.  But let's face it, you'll probably just buy both like me.  Now, let's crack 'em open:

My take is that the Superman cereal is way better.  Chocolate and strawberries may taste great together but but artificial chocolate flavoring and artificial strawberry flavoring do not.  But I do appreciate the little bit of extra effort of making them in little bat shapes and little "S" shield shapes.  Now let's flip over the boxes and do our morning reading:

On the Superman cereal you get the standard Superhero Quiz and on the Bat Box you get a rundown of each of their abilities which serves to highlight the absolute absurdity of a fight between a person with god-like powers and a person who has a rigorous workout routine.

Coming to a cereal bowl near you!