Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal (2022) is an Infinity Comics webcomic from Marvel Comics. It ran for eight issues and was written by Frank Tieri and John Cerilli, with illustrations by Jacob Chabot.
The story begins with Ziggy Pig and Silly Sealnote scraping by in obscurity, with Ziggy angry that he's been overlooked while Marvel's other super-animal characters are enjoying a rising wave of fame and notoriety. Desperate to elevate himself, Ziggy hatches a plan to besmirch their reputations and then promote himself as a moral and wholesome alternative. Can Ziggy succeed without getting tripped up by Silly Seal in the process?
As with Marvel's other Infinity Comics, the series was only available via the Marvel Unlimited app.
Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal contains examples of the following tropes:
- Alternate Species Counterpart: Doomfish is this to Doctor Doom. He's a goldfish wearing a Doom mask.
- Subverted with Doctor Octopus Octopus, who's just an octopus wearing an eight-armed lab coat and a bad wig.
- Anti-Villain: Silly Seal, who does bad things simply because Ziggy tells him to.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: One of Ziggy's Mooks is Crazy Larry, a guy who spends all day sitting in a corner and pulling wings off of flies (which he collects in a jar)."We sort of just let him do his own thing."
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Used by Ziggy Pig when he is interviewed on the Daily Bugle and angelically apologizes for the current rampage of bad behavior from the animal community.
- Celebrity Endorsement:
- Ziggy Pig's Start of Darkness began when he saw a commercial for Paste Pot Pete's Pulsating Palace of Pork, endorsed by Spider-Ham.
- Pizza Dog Pizza is endorsed by Hawkeye, with the slogan "Eh, It's Food!"
- Cloudcuckoolander: Silly Seal, full stop. He's completely oblivious to Ziggy's plans and simply goes along with them For the Lulz."I never know what I'm doing!"
- Comedic Sociopathy: While in prison, Ziggy and Silly pass the time by getting beaten up by the other inmates. There's even a queue for who gets to pummel them next.
- Continuity Nod: Ziggy Pig has a photo in his apartment of him and Silly Seal posing with Doctor Doom. This is a reference to Ziggy Pig - Silly Seal Comics, where it was established that Doom is a major fan of the duo.
- Evil Counterpart: To counter the Pet Avengers, Ziggy Pig assembles the "Masters of Animal Evil". This is a team of animal-themed supervillains including Dragon Man, the Super-Apes, Swarm, Doctor Octopus Octopus, Doomfish, and Armadillo.
- Fame Through Infamy: While they're imprisoned, Ziggy and Silly learn that they've become more popular than ever due to their villainy.
- Frame-Up: Ziggy's master plan is to ruin the reputation of Marvel's other animal heroes and elevate himself as a wholesome alternative. His targets include (but is not limited to) Spider-Ham, the Pet Avengers, Howard the Duck, Hit-Monkey, Lockjaw, and Chewie the Flerkin.
- Fun with Flushing: The Pet Avengers defeat Doomfish by flushing him down a toilet.Doomfish: You DARE treat Doomfish in such a manner?
Throg: We dare. Verily. [FLUSH!] - Heel Realization: Occurs in issue #7 when Ziggy Pig abruptly realizes that his Frame-Up scheme has turned him into a villain."Holy crap... WE'RE $%#& VILLAINS!"
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Occurs as a Funny Background Event in Paste Pot Pete's Pulsating Palace of Pork, where a customer suddenly grabs his chest and keels over. His wife grabs a complimentary defibrillator and tries to jolt him back to life.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Silly Seal — even after he's been repeatedly abused and insulted, gets caught up in Ziggy's schemes, and is sent to prison and beaten up on a daily basis, he still considers Ziggy his best friend.
- Interspecies Romance: Silly Seal is married to Roxanne, a sexy Lady in a Power Suit.
- Jail Bake: After Ziggy and Silly are sent to prison, Ziggy's mom sends him a cake with several files inside. Silly eats them.
- Jerkass: Ziggy is this, continuing the characterization established in Ziggy Pig - Silly Seal Comics. He's essentially Eric Cartman in a cartoon pig skin.
- Lady in a Power Suit: Roxanne, Silly Seal's wife, is never seen without her power suit and black stiletto heels.
- Mooks: Ziggy recruits a gang of inept criminal henchmen to help in his plan. They all wear domino masks, yellow shirts, and blue pants and caps.
- Mustache Vandalism: One of Ziggy's schemes is to dress up as Spider-Ham and deface a giant poster of The Avengers in the middle of Times Square.
- Neon Sign Hideout: Ziggy's base of operations is a run-down building named "Totally Normal (Not Sketchy At All) Establishment".note Throg: Why pray tell doth thou havest a secret lair, then?
Ziggy: Well, considerin' how many of you mook-imals found it, guess it ain't all that secret. Might as well charge admission at this point. - Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In issue #5, the Masters of Animal Evil have the Pet Avengers all but defeated, while Ziggy and his Mooks are watching via a remote video feed. Two panels later, the Pet Avengers have triumphantly trounced the Masters, to Ziggy's shock and horror.
- Pineapple Ruins Pizza: Ziggy Pig attacks Lucky the Pizza Dog's reputation by sneaking pineapples on Pizza Dog Pizza's deliveries. It's so horrifying that people turn green and throw up when they discover the added topping."Mom and dad, why don't you love me?"
- Poke the Poodle: Most of Ziggy's "evil schemes" to besmirch the reputations of other animal-themed superheroes fall into this category. Examples include ghosting (ignoring) Ghost Rider, prank-calling people, Mooning Moon Knight, and having Howard the Duck tease a movie sequel.
- Prison Riot: Ziggy gets caught in one in issue #8.
- Shout-Out: There's one to Taken in issue #5:Throg: "We Pet Avengers haveth a particular set of skills we hath acquired over very long careers. Skills that maketh us a nighmare to people like thee. If thou doth come forward now that'll be the end of it. But if thou doth not, we will looketh for thee, we will findeth thee, and we will—"
- Symbol Swearing: Ziggy Pig uses this when his language gets really foul.
- Talking Poo: To prevent himself from being recognized during Ziggy's crime wave, Silly Seal spends most of the series dressed up in a Poop Emoji costume.
- Toad Licking: Discussed with Throg."Are you like one of those frogs that people lick and get all goofy? Can I lick you? I've had a bit of a day."
- Toilet Humour:
- Done literally by Silly Seal, who spent half the day baking a cake in the toilet."Is this coffee? I don't know. It's brown, whatever it is."
- Zabu Kitty Litter uses the slogan "For When Kitty's Movemements Get Downright Prehistoric!"
- An advertisement for Hit-Monkey's assassin school promotes "Now With Less Feces Throwing!"note
- One of Ziggy's Frame Ups is to make it look like Cosmo the Spacedog pooped his name at the site of a space shuttle launch.
- Done literally by Silly Seal, who spent half the day baking a cake in the toilet.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Continuing from the Ziggy Pig - Silly Seal Comics 2018 one-shot, Silly Seal is married to Roxanne, a sexy brunette supermodel-lawyer.
- Uniformity Exception: Armadillo questions why he's in the Masters of Animal Evil, as they're all animal superbeings while he's just a guy in an armored suit. He shuts up when Ziggy mentions that Armadillo already cashed his check.
- Villain Protagonist: Ziggy Pig is the central character of the story, and he's definitely not nice — he hatches a plan to Frame-Up various Marvel Comics animal super-beings being rude in order to raise his own reputation, starts a super-villain team to battle the Pet Avengers, sneaks pineapples onto pizzas, and ends up getting his friend imprisoned and beaten up on a daily basis.
